Balkans

NATO Military Committee Chairman Giampaolo di Paolo and Allied Joint Force Command Naples Commander Mark Fitzgerald will not be visitng Kosovo today. They were scheduled to meet with the KFOR commander, Gen. Markus Bentler, and chiefs of the Kosovo Security Forces (KSF), it was announced previously.

The Sunday election inside the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of the North Cyprus were won by the prime minister Dervish Eroglu, the leader of the National Unity. After processing 98,5% of the voting bulletins, Eroglu got 50,4% from the votes and his main opponent present president, Mehmet Ali Talat got 42,8%. …

Serbian Parliament Speaker Slavica Đukić-Dejanović will arrive in Sofia today on a one-day visit to Bulgaria. There, she is due to met with the country’s top-ranking officials. Đukić-Dejanović is scheduled to meet with Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, as well as with Bulgaria’s Parliament Speaker Tsetska …

The US Ambassador to Bulgaria, James Warlick, has stated that the US missile shield will be discussed in Bulgaria over the coming years. “This is a very early stage of a process that will be discussed in NATO, Europe and Bulgaria in the coming years,” Warlick stated

Vojislav Seselj is scheduled to appear once again in the contempt of court case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY. The hearing is scheduled for April 20. Seselj, the leader of the Serb Radical Party, SRS, is currently on trial for war crimes committed in Bosnia …

High Representative Valentin Inzko said on Saturday (April 17th) that BiH’s EU visa liberalisation process may be delayed by three or four months, beyond the summer timeframe. “Some were hoping, including myself, that this will happen on July 1st, in the beginning of the holiday season,” Inzko told Deutsche Welle. …

Within several weeks, the government will be able to say whether Greece will need the EU’s financial support to overcome its financial crisis, Prime Minister George Papandreou said in an interview with Newsweek on Saturday (April 17th). On Friday, he told

The UN war crimes tribunal announced on Friday (April 16th) it has decided to relieve the court appointed-lawyer of former Bosnian Serb wartime commander Radovan Karadzic of his duties, suggesting the defendant no longer needs his services. The court says Karadzic, who is conducting his own defence, is actively participating …

The UN war crimes tribunal announced on Friday (April 16th) it will rule on an appeal by former Macedonian security official Johan Tarculovski on May 19th. He was given a 12-year sentence for a police attack on the Albanian-populated village of Ljuboten, near Skopje, during the 2001 conflict between Macedonia’s …

A meeting of the EU Committee for the Western Balkans heard that the EU is content with Serbia’s efforts towards regional cooperation. Reports from Brussels this Friday said that it was stated at the meeting that there could be discussion of Serbia’s candidacy for EU membership in June.