Belgrade, 12. 02. 2010.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic stated Thursday that the Serbian Military is one of the key deterrents against war conflicts and as such, it is the foundation of the peace policy that Serbia insists on at the beginning of the 21st century.

The military has to remain the key factor of the foreign, and in no way the interior policy of the state, Tadic said in his address to representatives of the Serbian Military and the Ministry of Defence at a ceremony on the occasion the Day of the Serbian Armed Forces on February 15.

"The defence system reform implies that the military should always have the place it deserves in our society, that our armed forces are part of the global peace-keeping and defence system, that Serbia is a peace factor and ready to assume responsibility both in the region and peace-keeping missions in the world," said Tadic, who according to the Constitution is the commander-in-chief of the Serbian armed forces. Only such Serbia will be respected in the international community and will have the capacity to defend its legitimate interests and rights, Tadic said. The president said that the completion of the army professionalization process late in 2010 or early in 2011 is a realistic goal, but that everyone who would like to take the military service should be allowed to do so in order to maintain a strong relation between the army and the citizens. Serbia is in a complex political situation nowadays and one of the challenges that it faces is the economic crisis that also causes security instability. It is important to strengthen the military and the defence system through a reformation process and to allow the military take a position in the society that it should have, but that the military should constantly be under civil control, Tadic said.

The reception in the building housing the Serbian president on the occasion of February 15 - the Day of the Serbian Armed Forces was attended by Serbian Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac, members of headquarters and other top-ranked officers of the Serbian Military.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - Serbian President Boris Tadic met with NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe Admiral James Stavridis on Thursday to discuss Serbia's activities within the Partnership for Peace programme and cooperation with KFOR in preserving peace and security in Kosovo.

Tadic feels that the Kosovo Serbs are still the most endangered people in the entire Europe, which is why KFOR has to continue protecting them, their monasteries and churches, regardless of the decision to reduce the number of its soldiers in the province. Tadic stated that the so called northern Kosovo reintegration plan is a threat to stability throughout the region, the president's press service announced.

The meeting was also attended by Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac and Serbian Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff Miloje Miletic, says the announcement.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - Representatives of the defense ministries of Serbia and Norway signed a plan on bilateral military cooperation in Belgrade on Thursday, which envisages a more intensive cooperation, including exchange of visits of top officials.

The military cooperation of the two countries is intensive as it is, with major collaboration in the field of military medicine, reform of scientific research activities and military education, the Serbian ministry said. The cooperation also includes joint activities of the countries' military medical services in UN peace-keeping operations in Chad, it was published on the webpage of the Serbian Ministry of Defense. The plan on bilateral collaboration was signed by Head of the International Military Cooperation Department of the Serbian Defence Ministry Milorad Peric and the deputy director general of the Department of Security Policy with the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.

With more than four milion euros which the country donated to Serbia's Ministry of Defense over the last three years, Norway is one of the biggest donors of this ministry, and even the more so, because it plans to invest another EUR 500,000.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - The US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Institute for Sustainable Community (ISC) signed Thursday agreements on donations amounting to USD 636,000 for 16 civil society organizations in Serbia.

The donations were also granted to the Center for Democracy, the Social Research Bureau, the Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution, the ecological society Helix and the Incest Trauma Center. The 16 civil society organizations filed top-quality draft projects that address citizens' problems within the competition that the ISC opened late in August 2009, chief of ISC office in Serbia Albert Cevallos said. "There were three thematic categories within the competition, and those are responsibility and transparency of the state organs, promotion of social-economic rights of citizens and improvement of the environment protection sector," Cevallos pointed out. Director of the USAID Mission to Serbia Michael Harvey underscored that these organizations were chosen primarily because they have demonstrated willingness and ability to work on introducing changes in the society.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Romania will continue the realization of the Pan-European Oil Pipeline (PEOP) project from Constanta to Trieste, regardless of Croatia's obstruction, Public Enterprise Transnafta Chairman of the Executive Board Bratislav Ceperkovic said on Thursday.

PEOP gained a new dimension with the decision of the two Romanian companies, Oil Terminal Constanta and Competa, as well as Transnafta from Serbia to continue the project together, in stages, with the first stage being to build the pipeline section from Constanta to Pancevo, Ceperkovic told reporters after a meeting with the representatives of the Romanian companies. He pointed out that Serbia and Romania agreed that Croatia's decision to go into a period of inactivity in the project does not prevent the construction of the pipeline from Constanta to Pancevo, noting that PEOP does not need to go across Croatian territory. Croatia listed the global economic crisis and internal political issues as the reasons for its inactivity in the project, he said.

"We discussed the ways of redefining partner relations in the company, i.e. a joint stock company, which will now be reestablished by three stockholders, with the possibility left open for other partners to join," Cvetkovic said. State Secretary with the Ministry of Mining and Energy Dusan Mrakic said that the Serbian government and the ministry completely support the building of PEOP. Serbia, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy are all participating in the construction of PEOP, and it was previously announced that the pipeline should be completed after 2011. PEOP is intended for supplying the European market with oil from the Caspian region.

BRUSSELS, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - Serbian Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic has said that, during the Thursday talks with Stefan Fule in Brussels, the new European enlargement commissioner said that, unless there is a further cooperation with The Hague Tribunal, the issue of Serbia's EU candidacy will be in front of the Council of Ministers in mid-2010.

Djelic told Tanjug that Fule confirmed that EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton will visit Belgrade on February 18, and that the new European commissioner for enlargement will attend the inauguration of the new Croatian President Ivo Josipovic on the same day. "This way, the European Commission confirms that the integration of the Western Balkans is one of the priorities of the EU and that is something very positive, which we welcome," Djelic underlined.

According to him, Fule has guaranteed that, as the chief of the commission in the enlargement section, he will very soon forward to Serbia the questionnaire and perform all other administrative tasks which could lead the country to the formal status of a candidate. Stating that the meeting with Fule was very encompassing and that it covered all the aspects of European integration of Serbia, Djelic underscored that it is not only symbolically that the commissioner decided to meet with the Serbian delegation on his first working day. Djelic underlined that during the meeting it was also evaluated that a further development of the regional cooperation, especially between Serbia and Croatia, is one of important elements of our European future, and added that Fule stressed that he will make a great contribution to it personally. He added that the Serbian delegation offered that Belgrade be the center of the future transport community of Southeastern Europe.

BELGRADE, Feb 12 (Tanjug) - Unreserved support Germany offers to Serbia on its way to the European Union did not change, but it is not realistic to expect the country's accession in four years, German Ambassador to Serbia Wolfram Maas has stated.

In an interview published by Vecernje Novosti on Friday, Ambassador Maas said that it now all depends on the pace of the reforms in Serbia and whether the prerequisites placed before each candidate had been met. The 2014 agenda that Serbia strived for and under which the region countries would become part of the European family in four years is not realistic, said Ambassador Maas.

"Caution is required since such goals may easily create frustrations," the ambassador said. We should always keep in mind the time other countries needed to get accepted, said the ambassador, adding that the road from candidacy to accession may not realistically be completed within four years. "The prerequisites for Serbia are the same as those for other candidates. They include cooperation in the spirit of good neighborly relations. I have never heard anyone say that Serbia should break its ties with the north of Kosovo. It would not be in keeping with our vision of good neighborly relations. When I think about the north of Kosovo, I always have before me Northern Schleswig, Germany's region of a similar size populated by the Danish minority. No one in his right mind would expect our fellow countrymen of Danish origin to stop their communication with Copenhagen. There are Danish schools there, kindergartens, the Danish queen comes to visit. Nothing is disputable and the administrative and state structure is not disturbed," said the ambassador.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - Serbian Parliament Speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic discussed the work of the parliament and the Srebrenica resolution with British Ambassador Stephen Wordsworth at the Parliament building on Thursday, the speaker's office said in a statement.

According to the statement, Ambassador Wordsworth expressed an interest in the work of the parliament, the resolution on Srebrenica and the final version of the bill on the parliament. He proposed to Djukic-Dejanovic that cooperation be established between British and Serbian MPs after the spring election in Great Britain and the constitution of the new parliament.

Great Britain's foreign policy, especially its support to EU enlargement, will not change after the parliamentary elections at the end of March or start of April this year, the ambassador said. Djukic-Dejanovic stressed adoption of a great number of bills and other acts is ahead for the Serbian parliament in 2010, and that the parliament will continue to operate at the same pace as last year and improve the quality of its work, it is said in the statement.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - The delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) commended the measures for pension system reform proposed by the Serbian government, the office of Deputy Prime Minister Jovan Krkobabic said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the statement issued after the meeting of the deputy prime minister and the IMF delegation, the talks were successful, constructive and will be continued in the coming days. According to the statement, the meeting was used to present the IMF delegation, headed by Albert Jaeger, with the amendments to the law on pension and disability insurance. The deputy prime minister outlined the key changes in the insurance system. The IMF delegation expressed particular satisfaction with the competently and expertly performed rationalization, and the successful unification of the four existing funds into a single pension system.

"The pension system reform efforts make the goals that were previously agreed on possible. The IMF representatives believe the proposed changes to the system are compatible with European standards and will create a pension system which is sustainable in the long-term and which will not jeopardize the economic stability of the country," reads the statement. Certain technical matters will be discussed in the upcoming talks with the IMF representatives. The talk was preceded by several meetings with World Bank representatives, who were acquainted in detail with the proposed reform measures, which they rated highly, it is specified in the statement.

BELGRADE, Feb 11 (Tanjug) - Serbian Minister of Labor and Social Policy Rasim Ljajic will have talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission, headed by Albert Jaeger, on Friday, the minister's cabinet has released in a statement.

The official talks between the Serbian government and the IMF mission on the revision of the stand-by arrangement began on Tuesday, February 9, with a plenary session in the building of the National Bank of Serbia, and will last until February 23.

PRISTINA, Feb 12 (Tanjug) -The EU member states agreed to extend Pieter Feith's mandate as EU Special Representative in Kosovo to another six months and this decision will be made official at the meeting of EU ministers on February 22, the Pristina daily Koha Ditore reports. Even though there were speculations that the EU member states which oppose Kosovo's independence will be against the extension of Feith's mandate, this did not happen.

The paper says that everyone agreed that Feith's mandate should be extended to another six months. Several diplomatic sources stated that the US played an important role in the decision-making process. The US sources earlier stated for Koha Ditore that the US and Spain are trying to find a modus vivendi, whereby - even though Spain and some other countries do not recognize Kosovo - they do not obstruct the EU's engagement in providing help for Kosovo's development.