Balkans

Romanian authorities have started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in Washington over a loan aimed at protecting Romania’s slowing economy from the global financial crisis, local news agency NewsIn reports. Economic analysts have already warned Romania should be the next east European country after Hungary and Ukraine to ask …

Economists warn that Kosovo has accumulated 475 million euros that is sitting untouched and idle in the banks due to mismanagement of public money, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance says that amount is ‘funds for specific reasons’ and should not be spent unreasonably. According to Shpend Ahmeti, from …

BCHAREST, March 1 – The Kuwaiti Embassy in Romania celebrated the 48th and 18th anniversaries of Kuwait’s National Day and Liberation Day, with Ambassador Yaqoub Al-Ateqi attending. The reception was attended by several senior Romanian officials, party leaders, businessmen, and intellectuals, as well as a large number of Arab and …

Bulgaria marked Sunday, March 1, 130 years since the birth of Aleksandar Stamboliyski – a prominent Bulgarian politician, Prime Minister (1919-1923), and leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union. The anniversary was commemorated with a solemn ceremony and a celebration before Stamboliyski’s monument in downtown Sofia, which were organized by …

Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev announced Sunday in Brussels he had asked the leaders of other Eastern European nations for support for Bulgaria’s accession to the European Exchange Rate Mechanism II (ERM II), which would speed up the country’s adoption of the euro. Together with the leaders of eight other …

Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivaylo Kalfin, is leaving Sunday for India, where he will be on an official two-day visit. Kalfin is going to India at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs press service announced. Minister Kalfin is also going to meet …

Dublin.  Ireland President Mary McAleese will visit Bulgaria in March. It is expected Mary McAleese to meet with political leaders and representatives of business as of March 25-27, Irish Times informs. Former communist country assessed in the EU on January 1 2007. Ireland President visited Bulgaria’s neighbor country Romania in …

A new rightist coalition is being formed in Bulgaria, as parliamentary parties Union of the Democratic Forces (SDS) and Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria (DSB) are in an advanced stage of the talks among them, Sunday. DSB’s Ivan Ivanov said at a party conference in Plovdiv, that the final decision …

A Croatian court sentenced retired general Vladimir Zagorec to seven years in prison on Monday for abuse of office and for stealing $5 million worth of diamonds from a safe in the Ministry of Defense upon leaving his post as an assistant to the minister in 2000. Although Zagorec is …

The EU’s law and justice mission in Kosovo, EULEX, prepared to launch the first trial under its mandate on Monday, against a protest by Serb judicial workers opposed to the work of the mission which they see as supporting Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. The trial against two Kosovo Serbs accused …