Slavic countries

Northern storage "boosts Serbia's, region's gas security"

ST. PETERSBURG -- Russian gas and oil giant Gazprom has filled the underground gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor in northern Serbia, to capacity.

Fule: Serbia became one of our closest partners

BELGRADE -- Stefan Fule has qualified as "impressive" the progress Serbia has made in its EU integration during the European Commission's five-year term.

Fule's mandate as EU's enlargement commissioner will end in several weeks.

BELGRADE - EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele qualified as impressive the progress Serbia has made in the European integration process during the European Commission's (EC) five-year term of office which ends in several weeks.

Separation of the state from party politics, pressures on the media and the judiciary will be the main focus areas for Montenegro in this year's EU Progress Report, sources in Brussels said.  

The report due out on Wednesday will urge a strengthening of the rule of law and fresh measures to spur economic recovery, reports said.

Center-right party GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), which won most votes in the early parliamentary elections on October 5, yet fell short of an overall majority, made clear that it would seek support for a strong government program with clear-cut priorities from all parties represented in Parliament.

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ZLATIBOR - The OSCE Mission to Serbia launched a project aimed at strengthening police capacity of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro in the fight against organized crime at a joint meeting of officials of the countries' interior ministries on Friday.

Europe RE: Flood damage to Serbia from EUR 1.5 to 2 billion

BELGRADE -- Serbia's has joined a unique system for insurance against natural disasters as cofounder of the regional reinsurance company "Europe RE".

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov and his Macedonian counterpart Marko Zvrlevski have backed the idea for the establishment of a network of chief prosecutors of the Balkan countries.

During a meeting on Monday, the two discussed the opportunities for cooperation between the chief prosecutors of the Balkan countries through a network.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Minister of Trade and Tourism Rasim Ljajic and Bosnia-Herzegovina's (BiH) Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Boris Tucic signed an agreement on the joint entry to third markets in Belgrade on Friday.

BRUSSELS - Serbia can count on more than EUR 1.5 billion from the Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) over the next 6 years, the European Commission said on Friday.