Balkans

Hashim Thaci says he is not surprised by the European Commissions report stating that “the Serbian government is creating parallel bodies in Kosovo”. According to the Kosovo Albanian government in Priština prime minister, the same report also states that the Kosovo government does not have control “of the entire territory”. …

Republic of Srpska (RS) PM Milorad Dodik said that Bosnia-Herzegovina could fall apart if the international community continues pressuring its institutions. Dodik said that the international community is “constantly working on violating the sovereignty of Bosnia and the two entities, as well as their institutions”.

Romania is interested in the South Stream project, Aleksei Miller, the head of Russia’s Gazprom said October 8. There were no talks conducted with Romania on the subject before. If Bucharest agrees, Russia will obtain more opportunities to implement the vital project. “It goes about the opportunity to build a …

Romania and Bulgaria want to build two new hydroelectric power plants together, Romanian deputy economy minister Tudor Serban said. A cooperation memorandum for the project will be signed “within a month”, he added.

Bulgaria has been named as among the 30 countries that have requested to take part in public hearings at the International Court of Justice on the question of Kosovo’s independence. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, a move rejected as illegal by Belgrade and its allies. The …

President Boris Tadic will spend Monday and Tuesday on an official visit to Hungary. There, he will meet with the country’s top officials and ethnic Serb community representatives. Tadic will hold meetings in Budapest with his Hungarian counterpart Laszlo Solyom, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and Speaker of the Parliament Bela …

A meeting between new Greek Premier George Papandreou and Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki may signal a thaw in relations. The two officials met briefly on Friday afternoon on the sidelines of an informal meeting of the Southeast European Cooperation Process in Istanbul. “I [hope] we have better cooperation in …

Kosovo’s judicial watchdog has suspended a judge after he revealed details of private deliberations in the trial of three former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA. The Kovovo Judicial Council’s, KJC, disciplinary committee has suspended Rrahman Retkoceri without pay after reviewing his public statements regarding the controversial Llapi Group …

The new head of the European Commission, EC, delegation in Serbia, Vincent Degert, says the EU-Serbia Interim Trade Agreement may be unblocked this year. The deal is part of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, SAA, signed last spring and immediately suspended due to the Netherlands’ strong opposition. The Dutch are …

Albania’s opposition Socialist Party staged a rally in Tirana on Saturday, calling for a recount of the ballots from the June 28 parliamentary elections. The rally was attended by several thousand party supporters and was also backed by several minor opposition parties and various civil society groups. Socialist leader Edi …