Balkan News

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov met with UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova. Parvanov greeted Bokova for being elected atop of the organization and remarked that her success is due mainly to her

Bulgaria’s ambassador to Turkey, Branimir Mladenov, has filed his resignation, Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted the Foreign Ministry as saying on November 13 2009. The resignation comes a week after Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva and the Cabinet asked President Georgi Purvanov to recall Mladenov and Bulgaria’s ambassador to the US, …

A six-member delegation of the European Parliament (EP), headed by German representative Doris Pack, will stay in Kosovo and Metohija on November 13-16, where the first local elections organized by the provisional Kosovo authorities will be held. Ahead of the elections called for November 15, the delegation will meet with …

With just two days left before the local elections, concern has been raised about mysterious visits to the vote counting centre by workmen claiming to work for EULEX, and questions are being asked about three tenders, crucial to the election process. Mystery workmen, claiming to be employees of EULEX and …

Bulgaria and Azerbaijan are expected to sign an agreement to cooperate on gas supplies Friday, as President Ilham Aliyev pays a working visit to Sofia at the invitation of his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov. Earlier the week Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy, Energy, and Tourism, Traicho Traikov, announced that Bulgaria’s state-owned …

Countries from Central Europe and the Balkans should do more in order be better prepared for a otential gas crisis and should find ways to reduce their dependency on Russian supplies, officials and businesspeople said during a Central European Initiative, CEI, meeting held in Bucharest. “The debate over energy security …

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has suggested a softening in the Dutch position regarding Serbia’s cooperation with the UN War Crimes Tribunal. Speaking at a debate on EU enlargement in the Dutch parliament, Verhagen said Serbia’s cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, showed that: “Upward …

Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina must catch up on the reforms needed to qualify for a short-stay visa waiver like those of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, said MEPs on Thursday. The European Commission should report on the two countries’ progress early in 2010, and also …

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, could delay the release of the second installment of its stand-by deal with Bosnia, an official said. “I have a feeling that the second installment will be postponed,’’ Mustafa Mujezinovic, the prime minister of Bosnia’s Croat-Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) entity told journalists.

EU countries have agreed to proceed with Albania’s application for membership of the European Union, a first step in a long process towards possible membership of the bloc, EU diplomats said. Ambassadors from the 27 EU states decided at a meeting in Brussels to ask the European Commission to prepare …