05/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - During an official visit of the president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, to Belgrade, Serbia, on Monday 5 July, the Serbian president, Boris Tadiæ, expressed discontent at what he described as a slowing of the European integration process for Serbia and other Balkan states, according to a presidential press release quoted by AFP. After many months of vetoing by the Netherlands, the EU27 have finally given the go-ahead to ratification of the stabilisation and association agreement between the EU and Serbia, but Serbia's official request to join the EU, lodged in December 2009, has not yet been submitted to the European Commission for it to give its opinion. Van Rompuy arrived in Belgrade after stopping off in Slovenia for talks with the Slovenian prime minister, Borut Pahor. At a press conference in Brdo, the president of the European Council expressed concern about the situation in Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, where an explosion on 3 July had killed one person and injured several others. (H.B./transl.fl)