Balkan News

The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said Montenegro is likely to become the EU’s 29th member.Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, has told Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic that the small Adriatic country is likely to become the next EU member state after Croatia joins in …

After a heated debate on the party’s future, Serbia’s former ruling Democrats agreed to vote on the new leadership on November 10.Members of the main board of the Democratic Party on Saturday agreed to a proposal of their leader, Boris Tadic, to elect a new party leadership on November 10. …

Parliament on Friday voted overwhelmingly to extend the mandate of the EU’s rule of law mission for another two years.The Kosovo parliament on Friday extended the mandate of the EU’s rule of law mission to Kosovo, known as EULEX, until June 2014. With 97 votes for, and 11 against, MPs …

The parliaments of Bosnia’s two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, have rebalanced their budgets as a condition for a new stand-by arrangement with the IMF.After the House of Representatives in the Federation entity supported the entity government’s rebalanced 2012 budget on Thursday, Bosnia is awaiting …

Bulgarians view the European Union more favorably than any other EU member state, according to the latest Eurobarometer public opinion survey. The poll results were announced Friday by the European Parliament and have to do with the EP elections in 2014, BTA reported.

The creation of new jobs is “the only problem for the Bulgarian government”, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov believes, according to the record of the weekly Cabinet sitting released Friday. “The creation of new jobs is the most important thing. At the moment, we must focus on job creation because …

The Kosovo government deported the head of Serbia’s Kosovo Office, Aleksandar Vulin, for deviating from his agreed agenda.Kosovo deported the head of Serbia’s Kosovo Office, Aleksandar Vulin, on Friday, police said. Vulin, who was on a two-day visit to Kosovo, for which he was given “green light” by the authorities …

Serbia is trying to improve safety and security by launching an online platform, which enables people to anonymously report on weapons held in their areas.As of Friday, Serbians can anonymously and safely report any weapons they know are being stored in their areas via the new “Targeting Weapons” website. The …

Patriarch Irinej, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, will participate in the international peace conference in Sarajevo, seen as the most important recent religious summit in the region.The conference, entitled “Our future is living together – Religion and Culture in Dialogue”, is the first joint gathering of religious and state …

Serbia’s new government has promised to bring in fresh legislation guaranteeing freedom of the media as well as acting on the basis of the media strategy – the key stategy document adopted by the last government.Bratislav Petkovic, Serbia’s Culture and Information Minister, said that the government will adopt a package …