Bulgaria, the European Union’s poorest member state and a rare fiscal bright spot for the bloc, has indefinitely frozen long-held plans to adopt the single currency, marking the latest fiscally prudent country to cool its enthusiasm for the embattled currency.

Prime Minister Ivica Dacic has waded into the row over whether Bosniaks [Muslims] have the right to commemorate a man they see as a local hero – but whom Serbs revile as a wartime collaborator.In a speech to parliament Dacic, said that he was against the rehabilitation of collaborators with …

The upcoming European Commission opinion on Serbia will reveal that Serbia has made only limited progress in the past year, the Commissioner for Enlargement has warned.The EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Stefan Fule, said he cannot give an exact date when Serbia will be able to open EU membership talks, as …

He stressed that Serbia would not join NATO. The minister explained that Serbia would continue to develop good cooperation with everybody within the Partnership for Peace program. Vučić and Ashenhurst stressed the importance of cooperation in the State Partnership Program which is mutually important and useful in all segments of …

Macedonia’s government is mulling recommendations from the OSCE’s election body, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, that ministers stop abusing their official positions during election campaigns.The ODIHR says that during election campaigns, ministers should perform only “technical duties”, and not appear at public events such as openings …

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, will be on an official one-day visit to the Bulgarian capital on 31 August. His schedule hosts events such as the opening ceremony of the second metro diameter of Sofia Metro which was partly financed through European funds, and meetings with …

Croatia will be divided statistically into two regions from next year, instead of three, to better exploit EU funds worth almost 14 billion euro by 2020, the government announced.Regional development and EU funds minister Branko Grcic said on Wednesday that establishing two statistical regions, Continental and Adriatic, instead of the …

Albania’s new President, Bujar Nishani, is to start his first state visit on Wednesday in neighouring Kosovo.In his three-day visit to Kosovo, President Nishani is expected to hold meetings with Pristina’s political leaders, including President Atifete Jahjaga, the speaker of parliament Jakup Krasniqi and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.

The governments of Bulgaria and Israel have expressed hopes that they will be able to solve together the case of the Burgas Bus Bombing, according to their Deputy PMs Tsvetanov and Ya’alon the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said. Bulgarian Interior Minister and Deputy PM Tsvetan Tsvetanov received Wednesday in Sofia Israel’s …

The former supreme commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, General Azem Syla, resigned on Wednesday from his position as the head of the commission tasked with verifying the status of KLA veterans.In his statement to the press, Syla argued that he was simply not the right person for the …