Albania

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said on Tuesday (May 11th) that Kosovo must do two things — implement re-admission agreements and integrate returnees — before the EU can even consider initiating a dialogue on visa liberalisation. “It is important that Kosovo too understands and knows the conditions,” Fuele said, adding …

Bulgarian Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, has showed his support for the strengthening of the state institutions in Kosovo so as “to protect the rights of all ethnic communities.” Mladenov was speaking after meeting with his counterpart in Pristina Skender Hyseni and Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci, as part of his …

Excavation will soon begin near the town of Raška, where a suspected mass grave is located, says War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević. Vukčević said that it is not known who killed the victims, while witnesses said that the site might contain the bodies of 250 Kosovo Albanians. The excavation will …

Albania may be included in a list of countries where NATO’s missile defence shield will be deployed, local media reported on Sunday (May 9th). According to diplomatic sources, NATO is looking into whether to include Albania alongside Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. The issue was discussed last month when NATO Secretary-General …

The Serbian War Crimes Prosecution believes that it has the location of a mass grave containing the bodies of ethnic Albanians. 250 bodies are believed to have been buried in the southwestern Raška area. “Thanks to our cooperation with EULEX, according to our information, we have a grave in the …

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said there was no crisis in Albania, adding that the crisis is only in the opposition’s minds, following the hunger strike, supported by the opposition. Berisha underlined that Socialists and the opposition should stop protesting and see Albania’s progress.

An International conference on local self-government is to take place in Pristina. This conference aims to present the local self-government reform and Kosovo’s decentralization process as well as share experiences and good practices from the countries in the region. Ministers from Macedonia, Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Montenegro, Slovenia and Turkey …

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is chairing the 12th Council of Ministers of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, AII, which began in Ancona, Italy on Wednesday. The Council, which brings together the foreign ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Italy, is aimed at preparing an EU …

Members of the European Parliament meeting in Brussels with their Albanian counterparts did not succeed in attempts to help find a compromise between representatives of the Albanian ruling and opposition parties. The two sides notably failed to produce a final declaration, which is generally issued at such meetings.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov, who has underlined the Western Balkans’ place in his country’s foreign policy priorities, has started a tour of the region that from May 5 to 14 2010 will take him to Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania. Mladenov, Foreign Minister in the …