Austria will boost its contingent within the EUFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) by sending 200 extra soldiers at the beginning of July, Defence Minister Norbert Darabos announced on Monday on the sidelines of an EU defence ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg. Austria currently has 190 troops in BiH. Darabos …
Read More »Macedonia: The name issue should be resolved as quickly as possible
The statement of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski that if there was a referendum regarding the name, he would vote “against” is a clear proof that the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece has to be resolved as quickly as possible, Erwan Fouéré, EU Special Representative for FYROM said. “The public …
Read More »Montenegro does not want special ties with Republika Srpska
Montenegrin PM Milo Djukanovic has rejected the possibility his country to establish special ties with Serbia, which was hinted by Milorad Dodik – PM of Republika Srpska recently. “I would say that the relations between Serbia and Republika Srpska have nothing to do with
Read More »French FM Kouchner expects both Serbian and Kosovo officials to be present at the EU-Western Balkans conference
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said that he expects “both Serbian and Kosovo officials” to be present at the EU-Western Balkans conference. The gathering is planned for June in Sarajevo. Belgrade snubbed an informal conference earlier this year in Slovenia, insisting that Kosovo Albanian officials take part in accordance with …
Read More »Italian FM Franco Frattini: Serbia candidate for EU by mid-2011
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini will visit Serbia today. Ahead of his visit Frattini said that Italian diplomats are investing maximum efforts to soon unfreeze the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between the European Union and Serbia and carry out a technical evaluation of Serbia’s application for accession in the …
Read More »Bulgaria, Serbia agree to more police, customs cooperation
The fight against organized crime dominated the discussions between the leaders of Bulgaria and Serbia on Monday, as the Bulgarian delegation headed by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is on an official visit to Belgrade. The two ministers of interior, Ivica Dacic of Serbia and Tzvetan Tsvetanov of Bulgaria signed an …
Read More »Macedonia, Kosovo Sign Border Agreement
Macedonian Minister of Local Government Musa Xhaferi and Kosovo Minister of Local Administration Sadri Ferati on Monday signed an agreement on border cooperation. The treaty on the Program for Cross-Border Cooperation between Macedonia and Kosovo is part of the strategic projects funded by the European Union’s Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance …
Read More »Greece says EU/IMF aid mechanism ready in month
Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said on Sunday (April 25th) that he expects the final terms of the EU/IMF aid package for his country to be ready by the end of May, and that this would be acceptable to all euro zone members. After a series of meetings in Washington …
Read More »Rapporteur says BiH meets most visa liberalisation conditions
European Parliament (EP) rapporteur on visa liberalisation for the Western Balkans, Tanja Fajon, believes that BiH has met most criteria for EU visa liberalisation. In an interview with the Nezavisne Novine daily published on Saturday (April 24th), she indicated that the European Commission will submit a proposal to scrap visas …
Read More »EC says Albania not ready for visa liberalisation
The European Commission (EC) says Albania has completed just one of four sections of its EU visa liberalisation questionnaire, local media reported on Sunday (April 25th). Government and local integration officials had assured the public that Tirana has met all technical criteria in the process. The section praised by Brussels …
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