Balkan News

European Parliament (EP) rapporteur for Croatia Hannes Swoboda believes that Zagreb’s accession talks could be wrapped up in the first half of next year. In a draft report quoted by local media Friday (November 26th), he notes that accession negotiations could be completed by then if the country maintains its …

The EU might grant Montenegro candidate status next month, an official with the European Commission delegation to Podgorica said on Saturday (November 27th). Clive Rumbold was speaking at the annual session of the Central European Initiative Parliamentary Assembly in Budva. He recalled that each country will be assessed on its …

A meeting of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC) foreign ministers took place in Thessaloniki on Friday (November 26th). Participants adopted a joint declaration on fighting climate change in the Black Sea region that will be submitted to the UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico next month. Romania takes over …

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his visiting Croatian counterpart Jadranka Kosor agreed on Friday (November 26th) in Ankara that there are no open political issues between their countries and vowed to boost economic ties. Erdogan said he expects the Turkish-Croatian trade volume to rise to 1 billion euros …

Slovenia has denied claims seen in Croatian media that it is blocking Croatia’s efforts to enter the EU. Instead, official Ljubaljana said, they were only protecting their own interests. Milan Balažic, the spokesperson to the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Slovenia only wished to protect, within

The United Nations Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon has once more expressed his disappointment at the “frustratingly slow” pace of Cyprus peace talks and urged Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to make real progress by early next year. The UN chief pointed out in a progress report released on Thursday that …

Representatives of Montenegro and Bulgaria signed an agreement for the mutual protection and exchange of classified information at a meeting in Podgorica on Wednesday. The deal aims to secure the mutual protection of classified information, including measures for the protection of classified information, the transfer of these type of documents, …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Turkey to open its ports and airports to traffic from European Union member Greek Cyprus, emphasizing that a dispute between the EU and candidate Turkey blocks Ankara’s path for membership.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said that Croatia is in the final stage of its EU integration process but urged more reforms to achieve the membership goal. After meeting President Ivo Josipovic on Thursday (November 25th) in Zagreb, Fuele pointed out that a lot has been done in the past …

Former Slovenian President Milan Kucan, who was recently appointed as Slovenia’s special rapporteur for BiH, met with Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik on Wednesday in Banja Luka to discuss the current political situation in BiH. Kucan said that his role would be to contact representatives of the three communities in …