First Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic will take part in an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers and candidate countries on Feb.1 in Bucharest. The meeting is organized by EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the Romanian EU Presidency.

On the margins of the meeting, Dacic will also participate in an informal working lunch at the invitation of Mogherini and Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu.

Romania expressed doubts the EU would soon lift visas for the Kosovo residents, given disputable decisions that Pristina authorities undertook lately, BETA news agency reports.

It includes the introduction of punitive measures on goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as intention to establish Kosovo armed forces.

On January 1, Romania assumed the presidency of the European Union. Until June 30, Bucharest will be the center of many European events.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker commented on this in unusually directly with a statement expressing suspicion that Romania was ready for the role, Sarajevo-based Dnevni Avaz is reporting.

First Deputy PM and Foreign Affairs Ivica Dacic received on Wednesday in Belgrade Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu, who was on an official visit here.

According to the Serbian Government, Dacic thanked Melescanu for attending a joint press conference after his meeting in the Palace of Serbia, "because he came to Serbia only a few days before Romania takes over the EU Council Presidency."

He pointed out that relations between Serbia and Romania are "very friendly."

The US intelligence service CIA, and the agency Stratfor, have predicted big changes on European soil, Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti is reporting.

Anyone even remotely monitoring how the internal political situation in Romania is unfolding, recently has noticed an irreconcilable conflict between the two leading palaces - the presidential (Cotroceni) and the government (Victoria), write today Belgrade based daily Politika.

Former Romanian President Traian Bssescu says that Bucharest is under pressure from Germany to recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence, reports Belgrade based daily Vecernje Novosti.

Basescu said in a statement to Romanian television B1 that Germany was pressing all five EU countries that did not recognize Kosovo's independence to do so.

Romania, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Slovakia were under pressure to take such a step, specified Basescu, the daily reported.

Spokesman for the Bulgarian EU presidency Genoveva Chervenakova says to Belgrade based daily Vecernje Novosti that Bulgaria will fully respect the status neutrality of Kosovo at the EU-Western Balkans summit to be organized in May.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met in Bucharest today with his Romanian counterpart, Klaus Werner Iohannis, Tanjug news agency reported.

Vucic said that he asked the Romanian president to help Serbia in its efforts to find a compromise solution on the issue of Kosovo and Metohija.

Romania recognises Serbia's progress on the path toward the EU and it will continue to support that process, says Romanian PM Dacian Ciolos, noting that his country's position on Kosovo was unchanged.

In an interview to Tanjug ahead of Thursday's meeting with Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic in Timisoara, Ciolos said that, from the very beginning of Serbia's EU integration process, Romania had been one of the strongest and most vocal supporters of Serbia's European prospects.