Foreign relations of the European Union

President, EU's Mogherini have "frank conversation"

BELGRADE -- Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic has stressed that Serbia is committed to achieving full membership in the EU.

He made the comments during his meeting in Belgrade on Friday with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

PRISTINA - Freedom of movement is one of the EU's objectives, but Kosovo should first meet certain requirements for the visa liberalization regime to be put in place, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said in Pristina on Wednesday.

The EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos, lauded the recent drop in illegal migration to EU countries.

Speaking during a visit to Kosovo on Tuesday, he said: "Detections of irregular border crossings of Kosovo citizens at the Serbian Hungarian border has dropped in the past month from 1,400 to 15 a day. This is a spectacular outcome."

Bulgaria will be granted EUR 126.6 M for the next five-year period under bilateral and multilateral European Economic Area (EEA) financial mechanisms.

This emerged after political consultations between Bulgaria and Norway at the level of Deputy Foreign Ministers, which took place in Sofia on Monday, the ministry's press service reports.

The number of asylum seekers in the EU from five Balkan countries - Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia - rose by a massive 40 per cent in the first nine months of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.

On February 25, the Commission wrote that the vast majority of applications had been rejected as unfounded.

Asylum abuse by citizens of the visa-free countries in the Western Balkans remains a considerable concern for the EU, the European Commission said in a report on Wednesday.

EU international trade in services increased in 2013, with EU exports of services to the rest of the world rising by 5%, from ?676 billion in 2012 to ?710 bn in 2013, and EU imports by 3%, from ?515 bn to ?532 bn. As a result, the EU surplus in trade in services increased in 2013 to ?178 bn, compared with +?161 bn in 2012.

Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova and Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov agreed to simplify tourist visa procedures for citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Georgia.

The measure is aimed at boosting visitor numbers from traditional markets such as Russia and Ukraine, according to the press office of Bulgaria's Tourism Ministry.

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) has ranked Bulgaria as a leader on diversification of gas dependence away from Russia for its decision to freeze the South Stream project in July 2014.

Iceland is planning to try again to withdraw its application to join the EU, Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has said.

"Participating in EU talks isn't really valid anymore," Gunnlaugsson said as quoted by the Reykjavík Grapevine.