Serbia wants to apply for European Union membership during the Czech presidency of the EU, Serbian deputy prime minister for European integration Bozidar Djelic said on January 23 2009 after talks with Czech deputy prime minister for European affairs Alexandr Vondra.

A media statement on the website of the Czech EU presidency said that Vondra had "formally accepted this information" on behalf of the Czech presidency. The Czech Republic is holding the rotating presidency of the EU in the first half of 2009.

Vondra said that he appreciated Serbia?s endeavours to work on fulfilling EU membership conditions.

"We as the presidency strongly encourage the efforts exerted by Serbia in order to obtain EU membership. Of course, certain conditions must be met. But here as well, for example as regards the co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal, we very much appreciate the progress accomplished by Serbia," Vondra said, as quoted by the website.

Stabilisation of the Western Balkans and their integration into the EU are among the Czech presidency's priorities, and Serbia plays an important role in this process, according to the statement.

"We consider Serbia to be a gateway to stability in the Western Balkans and the key to this stability is of course EU membership," Vondra said.

He said that Serbia still had a lot to achieve on its path towards the EU.

However, Serbia's efforts to join the EU were fully realistic if they continued to be based on hard work and a genuine interest, Vondra said.

According to the statement, another important topic of the talks was co-operation in the area of energy policy.

Serbia was among the countries worst hit by the recent suspension of gas supplies from Russia through Ukraine and received some gas supplies from EU member states under a rescue plan.

Vondra briefed Djelic about EU plans to boost energy security which the Czech presidency intends to promote.

"There must be room for the Balkans in these plans," Vondra said.

The two also discussed ways of bringing economic aid to Serbia, which like other European countries, was struggling with the aftermath of the financial crisis.