Serbian Construction and Infrastructure Minister Zorana Mihajlovic said on Monday that a contract to build a highway between Nis and Pristina would be signed with the European Investment Bank (EIB) later this week, TV N1 reports.

She said that the contract to build the highway between Nis (via Merdare crossing) and Pristina would be signed on Thursday in Belgrade during the visit of European Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc who will open the offices of the Transport Community in Serbia on Friday.

Serbia and the whole region are part of Europe, Serbian Minister of Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic said, commenting on a statement made by the French Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau. French Minister told Serbian press ahead of her visit here this week that "the current state of the EU does not allow for new accessions."

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure, Zorana Mihajlovic said Pristina should urgently annul decision on imposing additional taxes for goods coming from Serbia, BETA news agency reports.

She noted it is necessary to do so if Pristina authorities and the EU wish to talk about normalization of relations.

Asked to comment stance of the Serbian Orthodox Church on Kosovo, she said, “that Serbia is a secular state in which President Vucic is elected in democratic elections.”

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic states that the competent institutions will react to the customs unification of Pristina and Tirana, stating that ahead of Serbia is not an easy period, reports Radio television of Serbia (RTS).

The Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlovic states that the Government of Serbia could consider announcing a public invitation for the construction of the highway Nis-Merdare-Pristina by the end of the year.

The Minister told the Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS) that Serbia had completed the necessary documentation and that the investment in that road, also called "Peace Road", amounted 200 million euros.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, Zorana Mihajlovic reacting to Oliver Ivanovic’s murder told Serbian media, it cannot contribute to the peace and security in Kosovo and that she hopes the perpetrators would be found and face the justice.

- The Serbian government expects of the European officials at the Summit on the Western Balkans, which is held on 27 August in Vienna, to disclose that joint projects of Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina have entered the European transport network, or that the European Union accepted these projects as priorities.

Deputy Prime Minister Zorana Mihajlovic has said that she "does not know what is written in President Tomislav Nikolic's platform on Kosovo."

"I'm not familiar with the content of the platform, or with whether the platform has arrived to the cabinet. When it does, we will sit down as a team and talk about it," she told reporters in Belgrade on Tuesday.

Mihajlovic spoke after the signing of an agreement on the continuation of the construction of the Zezelj Bridge in Novi Sad.

Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure  in the Government of Serbia, Zorana Mihajlovic confirmed that she will participate in the regional meeting of Ministers, together with Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, on 25 March in Pristina. "I will participate as a Minister of Transport, and the topic will be infrastructure connection across the region," said Mihajlovic.