Albania

Serbian Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović met in Belgrade yesterday with OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut. The two discussed the current situation and the status of human rights in Serbia’s southern province, the Serbian Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija stated late on Tuesday.

In the first case of secession brought before the ICJ, 12 of 29 countries side with Serbia, saying that Kosovo’s independence violates international law; but regardless of the final outcome, Kosovo will not return to the Serbian fold, and the entire process is likely to only exacerbate ethnic animosity, Igor …

Albania’s opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama urged the government either to recount the ballots cast in June parliamentary elections or hold another.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha has been re-elected as leader of the governing Democratic Party (DP). The party convention voted 1.204 to 5 late on Monday to retain Berisha. He was the only candidate and will serve a four-year term. In his address to party convention, Berisha said the Democratic …

Bosnia and Herzegovina will chair the Ministerial meeting of the Adriatic group countries on Tuesday. The ministers will discuss the regional cooperation in the frameworks of the Adriatic group, NATO integration, ISAF mission as well as

Montenegrin Deputy PM Svetozar Marović says his country “most sincerely wants to have the best possible relations with Serbia”. Podgorica will not establish diplomatic relations with Kosovo before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules on the legality of the unilateral Kosovo Albanian proclamation, he said.

Vietnam and Venezuela are the last two countries to present their arguments to the court on Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia. The process was taken by Serbia to the International Court of Justice.

Speaking in ceremony organised by the office of the ombudsman, Albania’s President Bamir Topi, US and EU diplomats called on the country’s politicians to show greater respect for democratic standards. “Democracy, constitutional law and human rights are dynamic concepts, always progressing and as such efforts to stand alongside them, to …

Ethnic Albanian politician Azem Vlasi has confirmed that he will be the first Kosovo ambassador to Montenegro. However, Vlasi, who was a Kosovo communist official in the former Yugoslavia, could not say when he would officially be proposed for the post, saying that there will be no statements until he …

Albania’s Democratic Party and its government allies are expected to hold a major rally in Tirana on Tuesday, commemorating students’ protest in 1991 that are considered to have been the beginning of the end of the former Stalinist regime.   However, for most local observers the rally is seen as …