SERBIA IMF representatives believe that increasing VAT is the only adequate measure the Serbian government can take to address its budget deficit, but are willing to accept other propositions, daily Blic reports. The IMF officials argue that public sector cuts proposed by the Serbian government, while laudable, are only a …

BULGARIA Bulgaria’s Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov has named a new director for the Kozloduy nuclear facility after yesterday’s controversial resignation of the previous plant director, The Sofia Echo reports. Traikov appointed Dimitar Angelov as the new executive director of Bulgaria’s only nuclear power station on Tuesday. Angelov replaces …

SERBIA A group of young men threw two Molotov cocktails at the Greek embassy in Belgrade late Monday night, Tanjug news agency reports. No one was hurt in the incident. A window was broken and the fire-bombs caused minor damage to the facade, but otherwise the building was unscathed. A …

KOSOVO New US Ambassador Christopher Dell presented his credentials to Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu on Monday, reiterating his country’s strong support for Kosovo’s independence. This is the second time Ambassador Dell has led the US diplomatic mission in Kosovo. He was chief of mission in Pristina from 2000 to 2001. …

SERBIA Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic has expressed hope that the remaining war crimes fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, will be arrested by the end of the year, daily Vecernje Novosti reported Tuesday. “The action team, and the state’s top officials work hard every day on realisation of …

ROMANIA Romania’s public sector will shed 326,000 jobs by the 2015 deadline for the enforcement of a new pay law, Finance Minister Gheorghe Pogea said on Tuesday. Currently, there are 1,394 million public sector employees. The firings are in response to the unitary wage law, under which the minimum wage …

KOSOVO Several people have been injured after around 100 Serbs and 20 Albanians threw stones at each other in the troubled Kroi i Vitakut//Brdjani neighbourhood of Mitrovica, northern Kosovo. Serbs were protesting on Tuesday against the resumption of reconstruction work on homes in Mitrovica, which has long been a flashpoint. …

BiH Budući specijalni predstavnik EU u BiH, koji će naslijediti visokog predstavnika međunarodne zajednice, moći će sankcionirati domaće dužnosnike, potvrdili su u Uredu visokog predstavnika, a i sam visoki predstavnik Valentin Incko u intervju za austrijske medije. “Budući specijalni predstavnik EU za BiH imat će sve potrebne instrumente koji će …

BiH Vijeće ministara BiH utvrdilo je Prijedlog zakona o popisu stanovništva, ali novac za pripremu i popis nije osiguran, potvrdili su predstavnici Agencije za statistiku i Ministarstva finansija BiH. “Vijeće ministara BiH usvojilo je dokument okvirnog budžeta za period 2010 – 2012. godina, koji je limitirao budžetske izdatke i prihode. …

BiH Agencija za državnu službu BiH imenovala je Lidiju Topić za direktora Direkcije za evropske integracije BiH (DEI), koja će na dužnost stupiti 1. septembra ove godine. “Vijeće ministara BiH nije postiglo saglasnost o imenovanju direktora Direkcije za evropske integracije BiH u zakonskom roku od 30 dana od okončanja konkursa. …