Balkans

Southeast European countries should co-operate to form a regional energy market, with financial and technical assistance from the EU and Russia, participants at a Southeast European energy forum in Zagreb agreed on Sunday (June 24th).

A Sarajevo-based NGO that has been compiling a database of victims killed during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) released the results last week, after three years of data collection.

Council of Europe (CoE) Secretary-General Terry Davis said full co-operation with UN war crimes tribunal remains Serbia’s main obligation as a member of the CoE, in an interview with Glas javnosti published on Saturday (June 23rd).

The EU Council has added 15 new names to its blacklist of individuals banned from entering or travelling through EU member countries.

PODGORICA, Montenegro — Prosecutors in the Italian town of Bari reportedly have completed a preliminary probe into cigarette smuggling and will seek court proceedings against former Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, former Finance Minister Miroslav Ivanisevic and Montenegro’s former trade attaché to Italy, Dusanka Pesic-Jeknic.

The four Balkan members of the EU — Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Romania — issued separate statements welcoming Saturday’s (June 23rd) draft agreement on the outline of a new EU treaty.

European Parliament (EP) President Hans-Gert Poettering said Friday (June 22nd) that the EU remains committed to resolving the case of six medics – five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who has been granted Bulgarian citizenship – who face death sentences in Libya for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with …

The ambassadors of countries on the UN Security Council failed to agree on a new draft resolution on Kosovo, presented by the EU members and the United States, during closed-door talks Friday (June 22nd).

A dispute over compensation is holding up a deal in the case of six foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with the AIDS virus, the children’s families said Friday.

PRISTINA, Kosovo, Serbia — Parliament passed a law Thursday (June 21st) on travel documents, which aims to provide the public with highly secure passports, similar to those in Western European countries. Interior Minister Blerim Kuci says the law includes stiff fines for forgery or misuse.