Serbia has set the legal basis for economic reforms, and “now the main challenge will be to implement” new regulations so that country could take a step toward improving the economic situation and meeting the economic criteria required for EU accession, said Freek Janmaat Head of the European Integration Section of the EU Delegation to Serbia.

Ugljesa Sajtinac is one of the laureates of European Union Prize for Literature, which recognises the best new and emerging authors in Europe, announced Androulla Vassiliou European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The five year Mandate of this European Commission – also known as Barroso II. – is going to be over in a few weeks, and it is impressive how much Serbia has come along in its EU integration path in that time. Since I took over the enlargement portfolio in February 2010, we have seen Serbia applying for membership, being granted Candidate Status, and becoming a negotiating country, wrote Štefan Füle in an article published in Blic daily newspaper.

Serbia continues to sufficiently fulfil the political criteria, but it still needs to implement comprehensive reforms and focus on the fundamentals first, in particular on the rule of law, including the full exercise of freedom of expression, public administration reform, together with economic governance, said 2014 European Commission Progress Report on Serbia.

Following the presentation of Annual Progress Report for Serbia by European Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Fule in Brussels, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport handed it to Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, and then discussed with journalists Report’s key parts such as necessity to continue normalisation of the relations with Pristina, the need for progressive alignment of Serbian foreign and security policy with those of the EU, as well as the situation in media, justice and other fundamental areas.

The seven winners, 12 runners up, including Serbia, and three special mentions for the European Enterprise Promotion Awards were announced. Organisations from all 28 EU Member States as well as Iceland, Serbia and Turkey, competed for the chance to win either a specific category or the prestigious Grand Jury Prize. Initially, hundreds of projects competed in national competitions. Then 58 national winners entered the European level of competition.

New European Commission will dedicate itself to enlargement process and new Commissioner Hahn, if approved by the European Parliament, will place this issue at the very heart of his portfolio, said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport participating on the second day of Belgrade Security Forum.

Head of the EU Delegation in Belgrade Michael Davenport responded to a challenge by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic and donated blood at the Blood Transfusion Institute, challenging three top Serbian officials in charge with European integrations to join.

Serbia has made a strategic choice in the beginning of membership negotiations with the EU and made concrete steps towards it, so such commitment will be recognised on 8 October within the annual Progress Report, Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport told the Belgrade Security Forum. Also on 8 October, under its new Enlargement Strategy, European Union will reaffirm its commitment of granting membership status to the countries from this region, said Davenport.

The EU Council decided to mandate the European Union rule of law mission in Kosovo (EULEX Kosovo) to support the relocated judicial proceedings arising from the investigation by the European Union Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) into the allegations contained in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly report of January 2011.