Foreign relations of the European Union

A common electronic system to speed up checks at the Schengen area's external borders and to register all non-EU travellers was backed by Parliament on Wednesday.

Citizens of the Western Balkan countries will in the future have to request authorization from the relevant EU bodies of to travel in the Schengen zone.

They will still not be required to have a visa, Beta has reported.

Turkish Embassy in Washington said on Oct. 8 that it suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in the U.S. in retaliation for the latest decision by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara to suspend all non-migrant visa services at its diplomatic facilities in the country, Hurryiet reports.

The Serbian government has proposed abolishing visas for citizens of Indonesia traveling to Serbia.

This would implement the principle of reciprocity, since Indonesia in 2016 abolished visas for Serbians, the government announced after its session on Friday.

Turkey will not lose anything if it fails to become a member of the European Union, Turkish President Recep Erdogan said, quoted by the Anadolu agency.

In the period January - June 2017 Bulgarian exports to the EU increased by 11.3% compared to the same period of 2016 and amounted to 16 345.6 Million BGN according to data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI).

Main trade partners of Bulgaria were Germany, Italy, Romania, Greece, France and Belgium which accounted for 69.0% of the exports to the EU Member States.

Hundreds of Turkish civil servants have filed a request for asylum in Germany, according to data from the German Ministry of Interior in August this year, quoted by Spiegel.

The documents were filed after an attempted coup in July last year. Thousands of civil servants were sacked and arrested because of suspicion of ties with the organization led by preacher Fetullah Gullen.

Federica Mogherini says it is important that the EU cooperates with Balkan countries in preventing and combating radicalization and terrorism.

The Balkans is "one of four priorities" of EU's foreign policy, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has said, Beta reported.

According to the EEAS website, Mogherini, speaking at the opening of the EU Ambassadors conference in Brussels, said that the Balkans was the organization's fourth priority.

No official reports have been received by 10:30 a.m. about any Bulgarian nationals having been hurt in 17th of August terrorist attack in Barcelona, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a press release on 18th of August.