The UN mediator in the “name” dispute between Greece and Macedonia did not table any new proposals during his two-day visit to Macedonia, local media reported, but only “felt the pulse” of the local authorities. On his arrival on Monday afternoon, Matthew Nimetz met with Macedonia’s Foreign Minister, Antonio Milososki. …

After an all day session, voting 83 in favor and 45 against, Croatian MPs approved the new government proposed by prime minister-designate Jadranka Kosor just after midnight last night. The move to form a new government comes after the suprise resignation of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader last week. Opposition MPs …

Albania’s Supreme Court on Monday again delayed the case against former defence minister Fatmir Mediu – indicted over a deadly blast at a munitions depot in March 2008 – after his lawyers failed to show up in court. The lawyers notified the court that they were stranded in Kukes, in …

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to arrive in Belgrade on Tuesday for talks with the President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, and other officials on bilateral issues, the situation in the Balkans and the Middle East crisis. 

Turkey will continue to support Kosovo’s independence, its speaker of parliament, Koksal Toptan, said in Pristina on Monday. Toptan arrived in the city on Sunday on his first visit to Kosovo. During a meeting with his counterpart, Jakup Krasniqi, the Turkish speaker said Ankara was undertaking various initiatives to lobby …

Macedonia’s State Secretary for European Integration, Pero Dimsovski, has appeared to criticise his own government for its alleged lack of commitment to bringing the country closer to the European Union. In an interview on Monday for Radio Free Europe, commenting on last week’s unexpected resignation of Deputy Prime Minister in …

Kosovo’s capital Pristina has made an associate member of the EUROCITIES network, authorities announced on Monday. Pristina Mayor Isa Mustafa accepted the invitation from Brussels to join, as an associate member, the EUROCITIES grouping, according to a local government press release.

TIRANA, Albania Albania’s opposition Socialists accused the governing party on Monday of interfering with a recount of some ballots from last month’s general election in an effort to win more seats in parliament.

The Albanian Transportation Ministry has announced the temporary closure of the Thirre tunnel in the Rreshen-Kalimash road, one of the key segments of the Albania-Kosovo highway. The 5.6-kilometre tunnel will be closed from Monday till Thursday, with crews continuing construction work, which cannot be carried out with traffic passing through. …

PRISTINA, Kosovo The European Commission (EC) has decided that visa liberalisation should apply only to citizens with exact addresses within Serbian territory, and “not … citizens living on Kosovo’s territory”, according to local media reports Monday (July 6th).