Serbia asks central Europe for help with EU bid Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic meets his counterparts from four post-Communist EU member countries and Slovenia to ask them for help with his country’s EU aspirations. The European Council is due to discuss Serbia’s bid this month as the EU has set a general goal of welcoming Serbia and Montenegro in 2025. The bid, however, is being hampered by Serbia’s reluctance to recognise the independence of former province Kosovo. Vucic met Milos Zeman, president of the Czech Republic which holds the rotating presidency of the so-called Visegrad-Four (V4) group, and his counterparts Janos Ader of Hungary, Andrzej Duda of Poland and Zuzana Caputova of Slovakia at a two-day V4 summit at the Lany chateau near Prague. The leaders agreed to help promote Serbia as a new EU member. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES