Balkans

Hoping to fend off a strong challenge from the opposition Social Democrats, Croatia’s ruling party has introduced a new platform.

In the latest annual Trafficking in Persons Report, released last month by the US State Department, Macedonia is criticised for not fully complying with the minimum standards in eliminating human trafficking.

A court in Bihac on Monday (July 2nd) sentenced a Bosnian Serb man to 15 years in prison for war crimes against Muslims.

Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said on Monday (July 2nd) that the date of the country’s first elections for European Parliament members will be set for September, immediately after the summer recess ends.

New High Representative Miroslav Lajcak assumed the post from Christian Schwarz-Schilling during a brief ceremony Monday (July 2nd).

After two weeks of uncertainty, Feral Tribune, a political and satirical Croatian weekly, is back in business. The newspaper, praised for its public role and investigative journalism, had not been published since mid-June due to unresolved debt.

The Sava River, which runs from Slovenia through Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbia, where it connects with the Danube, should become completely navigable, officials from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and BiH agreed.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Bureau issued a statement on Friday (June 29th), voicing deep concern ahead of the July 11th ruling of the Libyan Supreme Court in the case of six foreign medics, who are appealing death sentences handed down in a controversial HIV infection …

EU and NATO troops on Friday (June 29th) searched the home of Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic. Inside the premises, they found Karadzic’s wife Ljiljana Zelen Karadzic, his daughter Sonja and her two children.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Friday (June 29th) that Kosovo is the “biggest issue” currently affecting the Balkans.