Balkan News

MACEDONIA Macedonia’s main opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM, will put up a tough fight in challenging the government’s economic policies, and will provide alternatives, leader Branko Crvenkovski says. The drafting of the party’s new platform, which focuses largely on the economy, is nearly finished, he said in an interview …

US The Balkans will not be one of the priorities of U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, U.S. professor Steven Meyer said. Meyer, a professor of political science at the National Defense University, said that Obama’s administration will only pay an extra amount of attention to the Balkans if a crisis …

KOSOVO Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on Monday met with international civilian representative Pieter Feith and EULEX Chief Yves de Kermabon. “There was discussion at the meeting regarding current political affairs in Kosovo, especially the decentralization process, the coming elections [November 15] and the implementation of the rule of law …

MACEDONIA Zoran Kostovski and Fuad Hasanovic are the new government propositions for Ambassadors in Hungary, actually Qatar, Makfax news agency reported. Kostovski, who is the General Director of the Consulting House “Motiva” and Hasanovic, who is former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, have been proposed on yesterday’s government session.

BULGARIA The cooperation between the U.S. and Bulgaria in revealing drugs trafficking have been producing good results recently, John Ordway, interim chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria, said at a roundtable discussion. The U.S. helps Bulgaria in security sector in two ways: tactical assistance (trainings and preparation of …

GREECE The wildfires that ripped through the suburbs of Athens forcing residents to flee their homes are now under control. Thousands of hectares of virgin fir and prime forest have been destroyed and hundreds of houses burnt to the ground. The fire broke out last Friday in the village of …

KOSOVO Demonstrators from the Vetevendosje self-determination movement have been arrested after overturning 25 EU rule of law mission, EULEX, cars in central Pristina, Kosovo. Some 21 protestors were taken into custody by Kosovo police after the incident, which occured behind the Palace of Youth at 11am on Tuesday. Spokesperson Karin …

SERBIA IMF representatives believe that increasing VAT is the only adequate measure the Serbian government can take to address its budget deficit, but are willing to accept other propositions, daily Blic reports. The IMF officials argue that public sector cuts proposed by the Serbian government, while laudable, are only a …

BULGARIA Bulgaria’s Economy and Energy Minister Traicho Traikov has named a new director for the Kozloduy nuclear facility after yesterday’s controversial resignation of the previous plant director, The Sofia Echo reports. Traikov appointed Dimitar Angelov as the new executive director of Bulgaria’s only nuclear power station on Tuesday. Angelov replaces …

SERBIA A group of young men threw two Molotov cocktails at the Greek embassy in Belgrade late Monday night, Tanjug news agency reports. No one was hurt in the incident. A window was broken and the fire-bombs caused minor damage to the facade, but otherwise the building was unscathed. A …