Balkan News

Austria to boost contingent within EUFOR

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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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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