Balkans

SOFIA, Bulgaria — A EU report on Bulgaria’s compliance with recommendations to tackle organised crime and corruption and to overhaul its judiciary will make no mention of any penalties for the country, European Commission spokesman Mark Gray said on Thursday (June 14th).

Bulgaria and Romania should try to avoid the decline in democratic progress seen last year in many of the other post-communist countries that are now members of the EU, Freedom House said on Thursday (June 14th) upon the release of a new report.

The EU and Serbia returned to the negotiating table for talks on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) on Wednesday (June 13th), more than 13 months after the process was put on hold.

Integrated Roma inclusion policies and an efficient use of EU funds are the key conditions for the success of the Decade of Roma Inclusion initiative, representatives of the nine participating countries and international officials agreed in Sofia on Tuesday (June 12th).

România şi Bulgaria vor scăpa probabil, luna aceasta, de sancţiunile Uniunii Europene, în pofida eşecului lor de a anihila corupţia şi crima organizată, după ce au aderat la clubul european în ianuarie, comentează Financial Times în ediţia electronică de astăzi.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) — Thousands of Muslims who survived the Srebrenica massacre gathered in Sarajevo on Monday (June 11th) to demand autonomy for the area, the scene of Europe’s worst post World War II atrocity in the summer of 1995.

BUCHAREST, Romania — The minority cabinet of Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu survived a no-confidence vote on Monday (June 11th) with help from the main opposition party, the Social Democrats.

The five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya in a controversial HIV infection case must be freed and allowed to return home as quickly as possible, US President George W. Bush said on Monday (June 11th) in Sofia, the final stop on his eight-day European tour.

US President George W. Bush’s visit to Albania was an “historic day, the culminating event for relations between Albania and the United States”, according to Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

SOFIA (Reuters) — President George W. Bush said on Monday it was a high priority for the United States to win the release of five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with HIV.