Balkan News

President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy said in Brussels late on Monday that the arrest of Ratko Mladić was “a turning point”. It was “an important step towards Serbia’s accession to the European Union”, said he.

Members of the European Parliament will debate on Tuesday the extension of Europe’s borderless Schengen zone to the newest members of the EU club, Bulgaria and Romania. The MEPs will vote on Wednesday.

Representatives from the European Commission and institutions from Bosnia-Herzegovina recently met in Brussels to discuss the process of integration of the country and its progress with fulfilling the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SSA).

President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik met with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 6 2011. EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele on Monday opened a dialogue aimed at examining the work of the judiciary in Bosnia

Chief UN prosecutor Serge Brammertz has said that Croatia is cooperating with the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, but missing military documents have yet to be delivered.

At the trial of Radovan Karadzic, a witness says that Bosniak civilians were deported from Grbavica, Sarajevo in 1992, while Karadzic maintains that the crimes committed there were not organised. Prosecution witness Radomir Neskovic, former Vice President of the Executive Board with the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, explained that members …

Bulgarian president Georgi Purvanov said that Bulgaria would support any compromise in Macedonia’s name dispute but the search for a “geographic” name – acceptable to all sides – might cause tension in Bulgaria.

Serbian PM Mirko Cvetković met in Nicosia today with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias during a visit “intended to improve relations between the two counties”. Cvetković laid a wreath at the statue of former Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III.

Macedonia’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party has declared victory in Sunday’s general elections, claiming they have won almost half of the seats in the parliament. “The VMRO DPMNE-led coalition has won these elections,” Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski told supporters late on Sunday.

Albania’s Minister of Education announced in a meeting with his Kosovo counterpart on Friday that both countries would work on producing joint textbooks for first-graders. “We will soon have textbooks on the market for children abroad [outside Albania], based on a common programme,” the Albanian Education Minister, Myqerem Tafaj, said. …