Accession of Serbia to the European Union

BRUSSELS - EU enlargement to the Western Balkan countries and Turkey is among Italy's strategic priorities during its EU Presidency, reads the document presenting the country's program that was published in Brussels on Thursday.

EU enlargement in Balkans "strategically important"

BRUSSELS -- Three current and future EU presiding countries say they will "work on the further progress of negotiations on the membership of the Western Balkan countries."

EU is neither dream nor nightmare - ambassador

BELGRADE -- Italy is on Tuesday taking over the presidency of the EU from Greece, and sees closer ties with Serbia and the Balkans as one of the presidency's priorities.

BELGRADE - Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and Greek Ambassador in Belgrade Konstantinos Ikonomidis agreed on Monday that it is in the interest of both countries to step up the political dialogue and improve relations even further.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has thanked European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso for the support for Serbia on its path towards the EU, adding that Barroso has come to visit "Serbia, the next member state of the EU."

Floods "showed importance of regional cooperation"

VIENNA -- Ivica Dačić says the recent natural disaster showed the exceptional importance of further strengthening of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region activities.

BELGRADE - Rasim Ljajic, president of the Council for Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), stated on Thursday that the Serbian government will comment on the ICTY order regarding the provisional release of Vojislav Seselj by Wednesday, adding that the Tribunal has created a problem and is now searching for a way to export it to Serbia.

BELGRADE - Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic met on Wednesday to discuss further liberalization of the visa regime that would help attract foreign investors and tourists to Serbia.

BELGRADE - Direct foreign investments are necessary for Serbia's economic growth and improvement of the standard of living in the country, but there should also be subsidies for domestic investments and those coming from the Serbs living abroad, the ambassadors of the US, Germany, Italy, Greece and Austria agreed in Belgrade on Tuesday.

BELGRADE - The EU integration and Serbia's economic rebound are two complementary processes given that the harmonization with the EU acquis leads to the improvement of business environment and encourages foreign investors, it was stated at the 14th Serbian Economic Summit.