Balkan News

FT: Croatia, Iceland In EU By ’11, Other Balkans Lag

Croatia and Iceland have a chance of joining the European Union in 2011, while Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia may enter all together as a bloc sometime between 2015 and 2020, the Financial Times says in an editorial this week. With the global economy in crisis, the bloc’s leaders …

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Barroso: Slovenia-Croatia dispute is bilateral issue

The European Commission wants Croatia and Slovenia to find a negotiated solution to their border dispute so that Croatia could join the European Union, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Brussels on Tuesday evening. “There is a Croatian-Slovene bilateral issue and we would like the two countries to …

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Kosovo MP Team Backs Serbia, Bosnia Embargo

A Kosovo parliamentary commission has recommended that the government implements an embargo on Serbian and Bosnian goods as a tit-for-tat response to Serbia and Bosnia blocking and taxing Kosovo’s exports. Serbia rejects the secession by Kosovo’s Albanian majority last February and has vowed never to accept it as an independent …

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Headscarved Pupil Pushes Limits In Macedonia

The case of a teenage girl who wants to wear her headscarf to school is creating waves in Macedonia, with educational authorities, local officials and teachers locked in a tug-of-war over religous freedom and the right to education. The girl, who attends a high school in the western Macedonian town …

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UNMIK To Broker Kosovo – Serbia ‘Talks’

The head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, Lamberto Zannier, is negotiating with both Belgrade and Pristina to start talks on ‘technical issues’, but it is still unclear whether top state officials or experts will take part, UNMIK spokesman Alexander Ivanko told Serbia’s B92 radio. “Ambassador Zannier met Serbian …

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Serbia To Talk About Kosovo, Not With Kosovo

Serbia is ready to talk about practical issues regarding life in Kosovo as long as discussions do not touch on Kosovo’s declaration of independence, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Tuesday, indicating Belgrade would only accept the United Nations mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, not the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina, …

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Macedonia Presidential Hopefuls Enter Bids

Six hopefuls have so far confirmed they have raised enough support for formalizing their candidacy in Macedonia’s presidential election next month, local media said. The deadline for rising the required ten thousand signatures expires on Tuesday at midnight, the State Election Commission said. The candidates who already qualified are the …

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Kosovo’s Sejdiu To Open Security Conference

Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu will give a speech at the opening dinner of the 45th Munich Security Conference this Friday, a diplomatic coup for the country as it prepares to celebrate the first anniversary of its declaration of independence. Conference organisers bill the gathering of top leaders on the first …

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Macedonia Presidential Hopefuls Enter Bids

Six hopefuls have so far confirmed they have raised enough support for formalizing their candidacy in Macedonia’s presidential election next month, local media said. The deadline for rising the required ten thousand signatures expires on Tuesday at midnight, the State Election Commission said. The candidates who already qualified are the …

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Albanians Push For Kosovo In Islamic Conference

Albania’s Muslim community has started a petition drive to appeal to all 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, OIC, to recognize Kosovo’s independence. Only 9 out off 57 IOC member states have recognized Kosovo as a sovereign state. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17 last …

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