DS party

However, DS party leader Zoran Lutovac claims for daily Blic that the DS Main Board and the Presidency are against it and that the Democratic Party does not want to participate in the negotiations attended by the Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic.

Speaking in the Serbian National Assembly on Thursday, the prime minister noted that the formation of the ZSO was a part of the Brussels agreement - brokered by the EU in 2013, within the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue - and that "it must be implemented."

Ahead of the budget debate, the issue of the cost of the New Year tree installed in Republic Square has been raised in the Belgrade City Assembly.

Balsa Bozovic, head of the group councilors from the opposition DS party, told reporters ahead of the session on Thusday that "one meter of the tree cost EUR 5,500," adding that "such a tree was three times cheaper in, say, Rome," and describing the situation as "corruption and the pillaging of citizens."

Leaders of the DS party and the PSG movement Dragan Sutanovac and Sasa Jankovic should travel to Brussels on August 24, Vecernje Novosti is reporting on Friday.

The two opposition leaders will go there for a meeting with European Parliament official and rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister.

DS party leader Dragan Sutanovac thinks "the best solution" is for the opposition to have a single candidate in the presidential elections.

He told Beta that the issue of choosing this candidate is "essentially important for the future" and that therefore "no rash decision" must be made.

A DS party spokeswoman welcomed on Monday the criminal charges against a person suspected of making death threats against DS leader Bojan Pajtic on Facebook.

Aleksandra Jerkov added, however, that there are similar cases that remain unsolved.

President Tomislav Nikolic's cabinet has announced that Nikolic, with his diplomatic activity, stopped the British resolution tabled at the UN Security Council.

His office in this way rejected the criticism of the opposition DS party voiced on Tuesday over Nikolic's decision to send a letter to British Queen Elizabeth II.

Anniversary of assassination of PM Zoran Djindjic

BELGRADE -- The first democratically elected Prime Minister of Serbia and DS party leader Zoran Djindjic was assassinated this day in 2003, in front of the government.

For more than a decade, every March 12 raises the same question - where would Serbia be today if Djindjic were alive?

Parties in row over "consulting firms" hired by state

BELGRADE -- Deputies from the opposition DS party on Tuesday asked the government to provide information about hiring former British PM Tony Blair "and other consultants."

On the other hand, the ruling SNS party wanted to know about the lobbying firms the DS hired abroad while they were in power.