Balkan News

Greece’s new cabinet will be announced on Tuesday after PASOK won Sunday’s early elections. On Monday the socialist party PASOK leader Georgios Papandreou will receive a mandate from President Karolos Papoulias to form a new government. According to some sources the new government scheme could be made public as early …

Serbia’s attempts to block Kosovo’s participation in regional initiatives could paralyse regional policies, according to a leaked European Commission, EC, report. This according to a report on Balkan countries involved in the EU enlargement process, to be issued in Brussels on October 14.

The upcoming change in government in Greece may act to break the current impasse in the Athens-Skopje name talks, Macedonian observers predict. Outgoing Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has resigned as New Democracy leader after his party suffered an outright defeat in Sunday’s general election to the rival Pan-Hellenic Socialist …

Blaze Ristovski, the chief editor of the controversial Macedonian encyclopaedia, which enraged the country’s ethnic Albanians, is resisting government pressure to resign. Upon its publication in September, the state-funded tome, prepared by the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, MANU, came under fire domestically and in neighbouring states for describing …

Macedonia has praised the Irish yes vote on the Lisbon treaty, saying its adoption will have a positive impact on EU enlargement prospects. The positive outcome would mean “a positive climate for the continuation of one of the most successful EU projects, the enlargement process, that spreads the zone of …

EU Special Representative to Kosovo Pieter Feith has called on all Kosovo citizens, especially the Serbs, to vote in the coming local elections on November 15. Speaking at a meeting titled “Independent Kosovo and the EU” in Vienna yesterday, he welcomed the fact that an increasing number of Serb political …

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci supports the idea of appointing a European special envoy for the north of Kosovo, according to local media. Thaci said that the appointment of Italian Ambassador to Kosovo Michael Giffoni as the EU envoy in the north shows that Brussels is eager to stabilize the …

The majority of Western Balkan citizens support their countries’ aspirations to join the EU, according to the latest Gallup poll. In Serbia, 58 percent of the population supports EU integration, down two percent on 2006, according to Deutsche Welle. According to Gallup, Serbia citizens have a positive view of EU …

International High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina Valentin Inzko says that domestic and foreign fears of a new war are unrealistic. He added that Bosnian politicians had to display more responsibility in their statements. “We should all be aware that words have additional weight in Bosnia, due to the tragic past, and …

Albanian Socialists Opposition decided to go on protest, unsatisfied with the government’s refusal to investigate alleged manipulations in the number of vote counting at the elections held on 28 June. Socialists Leader Edi Rama urged the people to massive protesting on 10 October.