Balkans

SERBIA Serbian President Boris Tadic says that Serbia will propose a new package of measures dealing with public expenditure and administration cuts in upcoming talks with IMF officials. “We need […] to rearrange public spending,” Tadic acknowledged in comments carried by Fonet news agency. He added that the best policy …

PRIŠTINA The president and government of Kosovo oppose the announced signing of an agreement between the Serbian police (MUP) and EULEX, reports from Priština said. The deal is meant to foster cooperation between the EU mission in Kosovo and Serbia’s Interior Ministry and police. But the Albanian language media are …

HAGUE, Holland A status conference in the court process being led against Serb Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Šešelj will be held on Tuesday. The trial was in its final phase when it was halted in February, after some witnesses of the prosecution claimed to have received threats. 

BANJA LUKA Chief of the EP’s Southeast Europe delegation, Doris Pack, said that the existence of the Republic of Srpska (RS) is not slowing down Bosnia’s progress. “The existence of RS is not an obstacle, political verbal attacks are, and that is present in both entities. RS is not a …

MACEDONIA Macedonia builds a professionally, well trained army as a guarantee of the territorial integrity and state sovereignty and therefore ARM is one of the greatest Ambassadors of our country, the President Gjorge Ivanov said. After 2001, Macedonia become security importer, but now it became security exporter, due to it …

ALBANIA Edi Rama, the current leader of the Socialists – the biggest opposition party in Albania, said he would run again for another term at the upcoming party’s congress scheduled for end of August. Despite facing numerous accusations from other parties and his Socialists as wells, Rama said he strongly …

ALBANIA The burial place of more than 4,000 political prisoners executed during the Albanian communist regime of Enver Xohxa, remains unknown up to this day. The secretary of the association for integration of political prisoners of Albania made public this information. This association accused all previous governments that held power …

BULGARIA Four of the nine last-minute diplomatic appointments made by Bulgaria’s former government would be cancelled, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Daragovest Goranov said as quoted by Bulgarian BTA news agency on August 18 2009. These were Boyan Choukov, who was supposed to take the post of Bulgaria’s ambassador in Macedonia; Atanas …

SOFIA, Bulgaria In August half of the respondents in a poll by National Center for Studying Public Opinion (NCSPO) describe as successful the first steps of the government of Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria /CEDB/. The respondents who label the government’s first steps as unsuccessful are five times less. …

SKOPJE, Macedonia A racially motivated scuffle involving ethnic Macedonian football fans and Albanian residents of Skopje’s Nerezi district has drawn strong condemnation from all sides. Women and children were reportedly among the seven people injured in the incident, which took place late on Sunday. A standoff ensued between groups of …