ROMANIA Despite uncertainty over the number of commissioners in the next EU executive, which stems from the as yet unfinished ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, Romania has announced that it will propose a former agriculture minister as its next commissioner. Dacian Cioloş (pronounced Dachian Chiolosh) is Romania’s candidate for the …

ROMANIA On Monday, Romania’s ruling coalition set November 22 as the date for the country’s presidential elections and established new rules to improve the voting process. The ruling centre-right Democratic Liberal Party, PD-L, and leftist Social Democratic Party, PSD, decided not to make any changes to the current election law, …

BULGARIA, MACEDONIA The Bulgarian government’s policy towards Macedonia, actions of Bulgarian tourists on cleaning desecrated monument in Struga, as well as the pink BMW cars of the Bulgarian defense ministry are among the subjects related to Bulgaria in Macedonian media. Kanal 5 TV channel comments on whether the new Bulgarian …

BULGARIA Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Rumyana Zheleva was in Brussels yesterday. There she met EPP’s leaders Wilfried Martens and Joseph Daul, as well as the President of the European Parliamen Jerzy Buzek. Jerzy Buzek made it clear Bulgaria should be ready with its nomination for EU Commissioner in October, …

TURKEY Relations between hostile neighbours Turkey and Armenia have taken a turn for the better with the two countries’ agreeing to hold talks on establishing diplomatic ties. It was last year’s unprecedented meeting between their leaders in the Armenian capital which began the slow improvement after almost a century of …

MACEDONIA Greece has toughened its stance in the dispute over Macedonia’s official name, making it more likely to block its neighbour’s EU membership bid, Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said. Milososki’s comments came in an interview with Reuters on Monday, held on the sidelines of a regional security conference in …

MACEDONIA Lustration procedures, focusing on past security service ties, begin for all public officials in Macedonia on Tuesday, with prominent public office holders the first under the spotlight. Public office holders have until the end of September to submit a statement to the parliamentary Commission for the Verification of Facts, …

ALBANIA The CEO of Miami-based company AEY, who is suspected of conducting a shady munitions deal with Albanian authorities to ship Chinese-made ammunition to the Afghan army, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy in Florida. The dealer, 24-year-old Efraim E. Diveroli, who is often described as a weapons “genius”, admitted that …

BiH Bosnia’s top western envoy has urged Croatia, Slovenia and Turkey to provide further support to Bosnia’s bid for full NATO and EU membership. On Monday, Bosnia’s High Representative Valentin Inzko met Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic, Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, oin the …