Balkan News

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkić met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York, where they are attending the UN Nations General Assembly. Mrkić said that he and Lavrov spoke about progress in the preparations for the upcoming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Serbia.

France’s Interior Minister Manuel Valls expressed some reservations about Bulgaria and Romania’s accession in the Schengen area as of January 1, 2014.

Serbian  President Tomislav Nikolić said after a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that he informed the UN chief about “all the problems in Kosovo.” These range “from the judiciary to the local elections,” the Serbian president stated.

The war crimes prosecutor’s offices of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina agreed in Sarajevo on mutual help and concrete cooperation in a number of war crime cases. The meeting between the delegations of the two prosecutions headed by chief prosecutors Vladimir Vukčević and Goran Salihović presented the activities in concrete cases and …

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attack on a convoy of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) in northern Kosovo earlier today and resulted in the death of one EULEX staff member.

France on Thursday condemned an attack in the troubled northern area of Kosovo earlier in the day in which a policeman from the European Union “Eulex” mission was killed. The area of the incident is a tinderbox where Kosovars and Serbs have frequently clashed in their joint-border region.

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Serbian counterpart Tomislav Nikolić agreed on Wednesday that the two countries “need to intensify their relations.” This is especially in terms of economy, the two presidents said, and announced joint sessions of the two governments.

A member of the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, has been killed near the town of Zvečan in northern Kosovo. The media in Priština have also reported about the incident. According to them, the victim is a Lithuanian member of the EULEX police. 

The President of the European Commission (EC) Jose Manuel Barroso has reaffirmed his strong position in favour of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area. Barroso said that both Bulgaria and Romania have met the criteria for Schengen area membership and should be given a chance to enter the zone as soon as possible.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić is on Wednesday traveling to Bulgaria for an official two-day visit to the neighboring country. Nikolić will meet with Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev and Bulgarian top officials, states a release issued by the president’s press service. During the official visit, a Serbian-Bulgarian Forum entitled “Sofia 2013” …