TIRANA, Albania The OSCE on Tuesday (June 9th) urged political parties in Albania to boost mutual trust to enable free and fair elections later this month, in line with international standards.

YEREVAN, Armenia US Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon urged Armenia and Turkey on Tuesday (June 9th) to make progress in ongoing talks aimed at normalising relations and re-opening their border. Reconciliation negotiations should be concluded within “a reasonable time frame,” he told reporters during a visit to Yerevan. Ankara …

NATO will decide today to what extent it might reduce its troop presence in Kosovo during a meeting of defence ministers scheduled for this afternoon. Currently, the alliance has 13,800 troops on the ground in Kosovo and it is expected that ministers will decide to reduce that number to 10,000 …

The UN-sponsored Athens-Skopje “name” talks will likely resume later this month in Brussels or Geneva, local media in both countries, say citing unnamed diplomats. During the week of June 20, UN mediator Matthew Nimetz will meet with negotiators Adamantios Vassilakis from Greece and Zoran Jolevski from Macedonia to resume the …

The Bosnian Serb leadership and western diplomats are on a direct collision course as neither side appears ready to back down only a day before the expiration of an ultimatum issued by High Representative to Bosnia Valentin Inzko. The Assembly of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska is expected …

The Kosovo President’s Office on Wednesday announced that Pristina and Skopje would soon establish full diplomatic relations, Macedonia’s MIA news reports. “We will soon appoint ambassadors and establish bilateral relations,” Xhavit Beqiri, spokesman for Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, told local media. The spokesman stressed that the Kosovo president was interested …

The international organisation responsible for monitoring press freedom in Kosovo has joined calls urging the government to condemn threats against BIRN’s “Life in Kosovo” television show and its presenter. In a strongly worded letter, the OSCE chief of mission in the country, Werner Almhofer, said he had followed the campaign …

Russian Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandr Konuzin has said that Moscow was seriously considering Serbia’s request for one billion euros in aid, Beta news agency reported. Such an aid package would earmark 200 million euros for the national budget and 400 million euros for infrastructure projects. 

Advanced green technologies such as superheated solar towers and gas from trees can compete with industry-backed carbon-trapping technology for around $6 billion of European Union funding, an EU document shows. Money could also go to giant wind turbines, made of space-age composites, nearly as tall as the 300-metre-high Eiffel Tower …

ATHENS, Greece Opposition parties emerged as winners in most EU countries in the Balkans, following weekend European Parliament (EP) elections. In Greece on Sunday (June 7th), the ruling New Democracy (ND) lost to the main opposition PASOK by four percentage points, 36.75% of the votes, compared to 32.68%. The Communist …