Balkan News

PREŠEVO Ethnic Albanian party leaders in the south of the country on Tuesday condemned an incident when a bomb exploded in Preševo.Two people were hurt overnight in that town in the region close to the administrative line with Kosovo.

A plan to end EU visa requirements for Serbians but not for Bosnian Muslims who suffered at Serb hands in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia will deepen ethnic divisions in the Balkans, critics said on Tuesday. The Green group in the European Parliament termed the planned announcement, days after the …

Forensic experts have unearthed a mass grave in the eastern Kosovo town of Gnjilane containing 11 bodies including four children, the European Union mission (EULEX) said in a statement on Tuesday. The victims are believed to be ethnic Albanians killed in the early days of a two year counter-insurgency war …

The caucus of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) deputies in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska are boycotting the local parliament until they are granted equal voting rights. “It is logical that this will lead to the blockade of the work of the [Republika Srpska] institutions, but Bosniaks had no other choice,” …

The MP’s from Bulgaria’s recently elected new Parliament swore in at its first session on Tuesday. Six parties have entered Bulgaria’s top legislative body – Sofia Mayor Boyko Borisov’s center-right GERB, the Socialist-led Coalition for Bulgaria, the Movement for rights and Freedoms, the Blue Coalition, far right nationalists ATAKA and …

ZAGREB Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor has told Macedonian President Gjorgje Ivanov that Zagreb supports Skopje’s Euro-Atlantic integration. Kosor said that the deadlock in Croatia’s negotiating process with the European Union had negatively impacted on the countries of South-East Europe, according to a statement from the Croatian government.

ZAGREB Croatian President Stjepan Mesić says that his country remains committed to regional cooperation and removing all obstacles in the way of such cooperation. 

Now is the right moment for a compromise solution to the row between Athens and Skopje over Macedonia’s name, the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said on Tuesday in Skopje. During talks with Macedonia’s Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, Solana urged the leadership to do everything in its power …

The Young European Federalist Movement, JEF, has criticized the EU visa liberalisation policy towards the Western Balkans, arguing that it could potentially create new divisions and anti-EU sentiments by leaving out Muslim minorities. The European Commission will ask the EU Council this week to offer visa-free travel to citizens of …

Belgrade is considering recognising Kosovo’s independence, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci claimed today. Kosovo’s government spokesman, Memli Krasniqi, confirmed to Balkan Insight that Thaci told Belgrade journalists today that Serbia was considering recognising Kosovo as a country.