Balkans

The security situation in the Balkans is positive and extremism has been marginalised in nearly all countries in the region, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday evening (June 28th) at the opening of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council Security Forum in Ohrid. He urged authorities to remain on alert …

Seventeen journalists in Macedonia were awarded 100,000 euros in damages earlier this month as a landmark wiretapping case wound up at the Skopje Criminal Court. The plaintiffs had charged the state with conducting illegal wiretaps in 1999 and 2000.

Presa londoneză continuă criticile la adresa Raportului Comisiei Europene privind Bulgaria şi România. Ideea generală este că Raportul a fost prea blând cu ambele ţări.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn met with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic on Wednesday (June 27th) and suggested that Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) talks with Serbia could be wrapped up and the accord initialled in September or October.

EUFOR handed over control of the Orao military base in Tuzla to the BiH Defence Ministry on Wednesday (June 27th), at a ceremony attended by EUFOR Rear Admiral Hans-Jochen Witthauer.

KFOR escorted buses carrying hundreds of Serbs to Gazimestan Field near Pristina for commemorations Thursday (June 27th) of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo.

The European Commission (EC) warned Bulgaria and Romania on Wednesday (June 27th) that they must step up efforts in fighting corruption and crime to avoid future sanctions.

In one of his final actions as the international community’s top envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), outgoing High Representative Christian Schwarz-Schilling put the state in charge of the Srebrenica-Potocari memorial centre, which commemorates Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II.

Croatia’s Social Democrats called this month on the country’s interior minister to resign, charging that he broke laws in an effort to find out who has been posting video clips of his interviews and speeches on YouTube.

Comisia Europeană prezintă astăzi, la Bruxelles, Raportul privind respectarea angajamentelor României şi Bulgariei luate odată cu aderarea lor la Uniunea Europeană.