Balkans

SOFIA In times of crisis and when Europe’s trust in Bulgaria has been lost, the country needs pro-European reformist majority and not a one that legitimates the Euroskepticism. These are the words of Nadezhda Mihaylova, MEP of the Blue Coalition and former foreign minister of Bulgaria, said in Strasbourg, her …

Boiko Borissov’s party will govern Bulgaria without bringing other parties into a ruling coalition, it emerged after the first round of talks between the country’s right-wing parties on July 15 2009. Borissov’s party, the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian), which won the biggest …

BANJA LUKA Clashes are possible in Bosnia if the work of state institutions is blocked and the Office of the High Representative closes, warns SDA leader Sulejman Tihić. In an interview with Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine, Tihić said that he did not know why his earlier statements had caused …

PREŠEVO Interior Minister Ivica Dačić says that the explosion in Preševo where a woman and an ethnic Albanian child were injured was “a classic act of terrorism.“ One person has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling arms from Kosovo.

PREŠEVO Ethnic Albanian party leaders in the south of the country on Tuesday condemned an incident when a bomb exploded in Preševo.Two people were hurt overnight in that town in the region close to the administrative line with Kosovo.

Aktuelni saziv parlamenta BiH rijetko se bavi svrsishodnim i korisnim stvarima. U protekle gotovo tri godine parlamentarci su mnogo više vremena potrošili na jalove rasprave nego na rješavanje konkretnih problema. Specijalizirali su se za svađe i višesatne rasprave ni o čemu. Poslanicima i delegatima niko ne može zamjeriti nedostatak lucidnosti …

A plan to end EU visa requirements for Serbians but not for Bosnian Muslims who suffered at Serb hands in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia will deepen ethnic divisions in the Balkans, critics said on Tuesday. The Green group in the European Parliament termed the planned announcement, days after the …

Forensic experts have unearthed a mass grave in the eastern Kosovo town of Gnjilane containing 11 bodies including four children, the European Union mission (EULEX) said in a statement on Tuesday. The victims are believed to be ethnic Albanians killed in the early days of a two year counter-insurgency war …

The caucus of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) deputies in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska are boycotting the local parliament until they are granted equal voting rights. “It is logical that this will lead to the blockade of the work of the [Republika Srpska] institutions, but Bosniaks had no other choice,” …

NICOSIA The consulate of Romania’s embassy in Nicosia has been temporarily closed because its consular and diplomatic staff caught the A/H1N1 influenza virus. A statement posted on the embassy’s website says the measures have been taken “to prevent the contamination of the citizens asking for consular services, and for allowing …