Balkan News

Members of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) arrested a former Bosnian Muslim commander Monday (March 22nd) for war crimes committed against Croatian civilians and prisoners of war during the 1992-1995 conflict. Hasan Hakalovic, 63, commanded a unit operating in the village of Trusina and allegedly failed to punish …

Greek Cypriot Archbishop Chrysostomos II arrived in the Turkish dominated northern part of Cyprus on Monday (March 22nd), the first such visit since 1974, when the island was separated into Turkish-dominated north and Greek-dominated south. Chrysostomos II is trying to gain support for the restoration of an ancient monastery

The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) describes the European Commission’s interim report on Bulgaria’s progress in the cooperation and verification mechanism as objective, realistic and proper, the SJC press center announced. SJC’s practice to monitor the high-profile cases is assessed positively. The Council is certain that more insistent measures and recommendations …

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said the EU must secure attendances of all countries of the Western Balkans at the Sarajevo conference in June and bring concrete results. The Western Balkan conference in Slovenia showed that the region is capable to undertake initiative, FM Bildt told Deutsche Welle, pointing out …

Kosovo’s government has created an inter-ministerial council to complete a questionnaire on trade relations with the EU. The council is led by the minister of trade and industry, Lutfi Zharku. Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci asked the members of the council on Monday to have the answers ready by April …

The European Commission in its interim report released today criticized Bulgaria and Romania for certain weaknesses which remain in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption, while noting that progress had been made in certain fields.

Slovenia’s Constitutional Court gave a green light on Tuesday to a border arbitration agreement with Croatia, helping remove a major obstacle in Zagreb’s European Union accession talks.

The European Commission’s interim report in connection with mechanisms for collaboration and control of internal affairs and justice systems in Bulgaria and Romania will be issued today, a spokesman officially announced.

Petar Boskovic, the head of the Directorate for Public Affairs at the Ministry of Defense, has announced that a Serbian mission to NATO at its headquarters in Brussels will be officially opened by the beginning of June.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday (March 21st) that she does not believe Greece’s financial crisis should be the focus of the EU summit that starts Thursday in Brussels.  Merkel said Greece faces no