Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, says abolishing the EU visa regime for Serbian citizens is possible by the end of 2009. In an interview with the daily ‘Blic’ newspaper he said: “The time has come to do everything to bring down the borders that separate the Balkan countries …

US Vice President Joseph Biden landed at Sarajevo’s airport on Tuesday early morning, officially kicking off his three-day tour of the Balkans. Aboard the Vice President’s Boeing 757, code-named “Air Force 2,” Joe Biden landed shortly before 5:00 am local time, traveling directly from Greensborough, North Carolina, where he held …

EU foreign ministers discussed plans for the final closure of the EU’s peacekeeping mission, EUFOR, in Bosnia, citing a stable security situation in the country. At a regular monthly meeting in Brussels on Monday foreign ministers agreed to move ahead with plans for EUFOR’s transition to “a non-executive capacity-building and …

ZAGREB, Croatia The senior ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and its coalition partners managed to win the most votes in 14 counties in Sunday’s (May 17th) local elections. Preliminary results from the State Electoral Commission suggest the leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), claimed victory in five counties, …

TIRANA, Albania The country has not done enough to meet the requirements for abolishing the visa regime with the EU, local media reported on Sunday (May 17th), citing a report by the European Commission. The document officially appears on Monday.

PRISTINA, Kosovo The government will soon present an EU partnership plan to guarantee smoother integration, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci told a cabinet meeting Friday (May 15th). He added that the government, local institutions and the public must share a commitment to EU integration and treat it as a high priority. …

NICOSIA, Cyprus Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said on Friday (May 15th) Nicosia does not intend to veto Turkey’s EU accession process, “either on its own or with another country”.

NKARA, Turkey Tens of thousands of people marched in Ankara on Sunday (May 17th) in support of secularism and against the scores of recent arrests stemming from the controversial Ergenekon probe.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Security Minister Tarik Sadovic has asked the local Interpol office to contact the international police organisation’s headquarters in Lyon and ask it to withdraw arrest warrants issued for several people from BiH, local media reported on Sunday (May 17th). Serbia had confirmed on Saturday that …

BUCHAREST, Romania The National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office indicted Radu Timofte, former chief of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), on charges of fraud and forgery, media reported. The charges Friday (May 15th) stem from the purchase of an apartment from the country’s state protocol authority (RA-APPS). Prosecutors say Timofte failed to …