The International Monetary Mission Fund (IMF) will send its mission to Belgrade on Monday to assess the country’s bid for a third installment of the stand-by agreement of an IMF.

Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki is set to visit Albania on Monday. During his stay in Tirana, Minister Milososki will meet Foreign Minister Ilir Meta, President Bamir Topi, Parliament President Josefina Topali and Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

It looks likely that pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych has won Ukraine’s presidential election – but only by a slender margin. Claiming victory, he told supporters: “People wanted change and I think this election was the first step towards the unification of the nation.”

On the second day of his working visit to Britain Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov visits the British intelligence and parliament and confers with his British counterpart Gordon Brown.

Officials from the European Commission (EC), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Bulgaria 18 February to examine the country’s readiness to join ERM II, the so-called Eurozone waiting room.

There is no alternative to Macedonia’s EU and NATO future, Macedonian President Georgi Ivanov said Sunday after the completion of the Munich Security Conference. While the name row with Greece hampers this perspective, he said his country was doing everything in its power to overcome the obstacle.

The Russian foreign ministry on Friday (February 5th) expressed concern and demanded an explanation after Romania announced plans to deploy elements of a proposed US missile defence shield. The Supreme Defence Council in Bucharest backed the idea Thursday. Romanian President Traian Basescu says the facilities should be operational by 2015 …

The BiH Court on Friday (February 5th) convicted defendants Predrag Bastah and Goran Viskovic of crimes against humanity, sentencing them to 22 and 18 years in prison respectively. According to the indictment, Bastah, who was a police reservist in a public security station in Vlasenica, and Viskovic, who was a …

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Saturday (February 6th) that she would like all Western Balkan countries to be successful on their paths to EU integration. Speaking at a security conference in Munich, Ashton said progress depends on the pace of reforms, and that some countries are performing …

Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat vowed on Friday (February 5th) to continue talks with Cypriot President Demetris Christofias on the reunification of the divided island. “Although we [Turkish Cypriots] have elections in April, I’m not going to stop the talks.