Balkans

European Parliament (EP) Rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek believes that Kosovo needs a clear membership perspective, rather than promises regarding its EU future. Lunacek presented a document in Vienna on Tuesday (June 1st) containing eight recommendations, drafted with experts and representatives of Kosovo’s civil society. “I am working on a …

The US Deputy Secretary of State, James B. Steinberg, is set to visit Bulgaria Thursday to hold meetings with senior Bulgarian government officials, the US State Department has confirmed. Steinberg is first traveling to Sarajevo on Wednesday to attend the EU-Western Balkans ministerial meeting

The end of the NATO mission in Albania will be marked in its capital on Wednesday. The Albanian ambassador in Bulgaria Bujar Skendo describes NATO mission as “necessary for gaining ground for the modern

Serbian President Boris Tadić will meet in Athens today, on the second day of his official visit to Greece, with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. He will also meet with Greek businesspeople at a meeting of the Greek-Serbian Business Council.

The EU-Western Balkans conference starts in Sarajevo on Wednesday, the media report. It will be attended by 48 delegations, 29 ministers and secretaries general of institutions and organizations, 33 deputy foreign ministers

Serbian government delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Regional Development Mladjan Dinkic, will arrive in Macedonia on Wednesday for an official visit. Deputy Prime Minister Dinkic will hold a meeting with his host – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Vladimir Pesevski.

The Supreme Court on Monday (May 31st) started discussing an appeal of the sentence handed down to former parliament member Branimir Glavas. In May of last year, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for war crimes against ethnic Serbs in the city of Osijek in 1991. Soon after …

The process of Euro-Atlantic integration should be intensified and include all countries in the region, according to participants attending a regional conference on NATO integration that began on Monday (May 31st) in Bitola. Some of the ministers said that unless Macedonia and Kosovo are admitted to NATO and unless remaining …

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said on Tuesday he pledges for solution to name dispute with Greece, noting that such a solution must not harm the country’s interests. He commented his speech to the VMRO-DPMNE youths last weekend.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed confidence at the Russia-EU summit that South Stream gas pipeline could turn into a trans-European energy network. “Of late we’ve already reached good results,” the president said adding that Moscow “consecutively diversified oil and gas supply routes.” “We hope that the South Stream project can …