Balkans

Romania’s goal to join the eurozone in 2015 is “unfeasible”, President Traian Basescu told lawmakers on Tuesday. “The 2015 deadline for entering the eurozone looks unfeasible to me,” Basescu said in a speech to parliament. “But it is essential for us to adopt the single currency within the next three …

Thousands marched through Belgrade carrying red roses as the city marked the passing of a decade since the assassination of pro-Western Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.Thousands of people gathered in front of the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party in Belgrade on Tuesday for their annual procession through the capital commemorating …

A caretaker government has been appointed to run Bulgaria ahead of early general elections in May, the President announced.Marin Raykov will head Bulgaria’s caretaker government until the May 12 elections, the Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev announced on Tuesday. “The prime minister should be a good diplomat. He must be sensible …

Ahead of the next round of Kosovo talks, Serbia’s President says a deal on the Serb-run north is within reach now that Kosovo has agreed to certain ‘concessions’.Tomislav Nikolic said that a deal between Kosovo and Serbia over northern Kosovo was within sight, following talks in Brussels in which Kosovo …

The OSCE head in Albania, Eugen Wolfarth, on Tuesday criticised a proposal by Prime Minister Sali Berisha to rush through an extension of voting rights to 16-year-olds ahead of the June 23 elections.“Ahead of this election there is no time [for such a change],” Wolfarth said. “Such thing cannot be …

Serbia’s Vice-Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, has dismissed reports that he wants opposition parties in the Serb-led entity to win the 2014 elections.Aleksandar Vucic, Vice-President of the Serbian government, has dismissed reports in the Sarajevo media that Belgrade plans to help the opposition in Republika Srpska win the next general election …

With the message that ‘It can be forgiven, but not forgotten,’ Macedonia on Monday marked the 70th anniversary of the deportation of the Jewish community to Nazi death camps.Representatives of the Community of the Jews in Macedonia, the Holocaust Fund of Macedonian Jews, the President, the government and other organizations …

Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivan Mrkic said that the country “has never been closer to getting a date for the start of EU accession talks”. After talks with foreign officials Mrkic said that “no one explicitly said that an agreement on Serb municipalities in Kosovo is the key precondition for that”.

Serbian officials said in Brussels last night, “either give us the community of Serb municipalities or let’s not waste any more time”. The Serbian prime minister,  Ivica Dacic, spoke after returning from the meeting at the seat of the EU, held on Monday evening. “This is about everyone’s interest in …

Former Yugoslav Army commander Nebojsa Pavkovic and deputy prime minsiter Nikola Sainovic said at their Hague Tribunal appeal that they are not guilty of murder and persecution of Kosovo Albanians during the 1999 conflict. The two have been sentenced in 2009 to 22 years of jail each for deportation, murder …