The United States hailed Macedonia for holding violence-free elections but urged the country to keep up the effort for the run-off vote on April 5, local media report. Mary Ann Tyson, the Press Secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, told Voice of America’s Macedonian news …

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev has told the Reuters news agency that his party must win forthcoming parliamentary elections to stop the opposition implementing what he describes as “dangerous” economic plans. Stanishev said that Bulgaria did not need experiments with fiscal policy to deal with the global downturn as offered by …

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued a first-instance verdict, sentencing Krsto Savic and Milko Mucibabic for crimes against humanity committed in eastern Herzegovina. By a first-instance verdict, handed down by the State Court, Krsto Savic has been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for participation in a joint criminal …

Police representatives from around the region were invited to Pristina’s Grand Hotel on Monday, at a conference against organised crime and trafficking held by Kosovo’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. Officials from Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia attended, while invited representatives from Serbia and Bosnia and …

Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina have agreed to improve economic and diplomatic relations and work jointly towards their faster membership in the European Union and NATO. The agreement to improve relations between the two countries came during the official visit of Albanian Premier Sali Berisha to the Bosnian capital of …

As a new bid for state bonds is launched on Tuesday, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski argues that they are not being issued to cover a budget crisis. The rumours that the state budget is so empty that there is no money for the wages for the state administration and for …

Bulgaria’s economy will shrink by five per cent this year, London-based research firm Capital Economics suggests, as quoted by the Bloomberg news agency. In one of the bleakest forecasts about the Bulgarian economy since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, Capital Economics said exports and inbound investment flows will …

The European Commission is considering Belgrade’s proposal to set aside €120 milion from pre-accession funds to help maintain Serbia’s macroeconomic stability and the budget. That is according to EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. After a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic, Rehn highlighted that the European Union may start …

NICOSIA, Cyprus — EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has called on Turkey to help solve the issue of missing persons in Cyprus, local media reported on Friday (March 20th). Turkey is obliged under a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling to allow for an effective investigation into the fate …

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo’s institutions have welcomed the UN’s latest quarterly report on Kosovo as “objective”, media reported on Saturday (March 21st). The report, due to be presented to the UN Security Council on Monday, describes the many challenges facing UNMIK in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and …