Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic and French and Belgian Ambassadors to Serbia, Francois Xavier Deniau and Denise De Hauwere respectively, will sign a memorandum on a multi-annual program of teaching the French language to the Serbian administration, the Foreign Ministry has announced.

Serbia will sign memorandums with the International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF), the state of France, French Community of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and the signing will be attended by IOF representative Stephane Lopez.

As was told at the French Embassy in Belgrade, the program is envisaged to include 220 state officials, and it will be financed by the IOF. Based on the text of the memorandum that Tanjug had insight into, the French language will be taught to Serbia's public service, specialized for the monitoring of European and international issues, with the aim of strengthening the status of the French language as official and working language in European institutions and international organizations.

The program, which has so far been completed by 13,000 officials from 26 European countries, is intended for the employees of the Serbian central administration, foreign ministry and other ministries and public institutions.

The IOF was established in 1970 and today includes 56 member states and 14 observers (among which is Serbia), which together encompass 870 million people, 200 million of whom speak French.