Balkan News

A European Parliament, EP, committee supports the call of special rapporteur for visa issues, MEP Tanja Fajon, for the acceleration of visa liberalisation for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, once the two countries meet established criteria. Members of the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs also supported Fajon’s …

Macedonia’s border agreement with Kosovo is a classic example of an exchange of territories made in murky conditions and outside the law, Macedonia’s opposition parties allege. The neighbouring states announced on Sunday that they had closed their long-standing border issue. Macedonia’s parliament ratified the agreement on Saturday with a simple …

The opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, would back any government compromise in the Athens-Skopje name row that guarantees that the language and nation would remain unchanged and referred to as Macedonian. “Whatever is acceptable to you will be acceptable to us.” SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski told Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at …

After Butmir agreements, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s legislative power should be more effective and it should speed up decision-making process. U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Charles English, said on Sunday that the package of constitutional changes suggested to Bosnia and Herzegovina by the international community will soon be handed over …

Serbian PM Mirko Cvetković met on Monday in Belgrade with Russian Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu. Cvetković was quoted as telling his guest that the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday is extremely important for boosting the overall bilateral relations.

The United States has welcomed “establishment of relations between Priština and Skopje and successful completion of the border demarcation”. “The U.S. warmly welcomes the establishing of the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia as well as successful completion of the demarcation of their joint …

The Pentagon is spending more than $100 million to build new military bases in Bulgaria and Romania after Obama’s administration scrapped plans for missile-defense shield in eastern Europe. “Both of these bases illustrate great commitment to eastern Europe,” said Col. Gary Russ, Commander of Joint Task Force-East said.

Italian ambassador to Kosovo Michael Giffoni was officially appointed as EU representative for Northern Kosovo. At his new post, Giffoni’s will focus mainly on increasing of the EU activities in the part of Kosovo where the Serbs comprise majority of the population.

Serbia hopes to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) next year, the country’s economy ministry said. Vesna Arsic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economy, said it is realistic to expect that Serbia will join the WTO in 2010 if it completes the negotiations for admission into the organization by …

Three former envoys to Bosnia have issued a joint statement critiquing the latest EU-US effort to end the country’s political crisis and proposing a new international approach. The statement was issued by Wolfgang Petritsch, Paddy Ashdown and Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who served as high representatives to Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1999 …