Balkans

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged his Greek counterpart to extend joint efforts to end a dispute over the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus which has been divided between a Turkish north and a Greek south since 1974.

Secretary of State John Kerry has congratulated Bulgaria on behalf of President Barack Obama and the people of the United States, on the occasion of its national day on March 3. In his address, published on the official website of the US Department of State, John Kerry states the following: …

Romania will scale back renewable- power subsidies to limit electricity-price increases for consumers, according to the minister-delegate for energy. The eastern European country plans to make changes to its incentive program in July or at the beginning of next year, Constantin Nita said today in an interview in Bucharest. It …

The Croatian Democratic Union has expelled Jadranka Kosor, the former party president and Prime Minister, following her criticisms of her successor.The five-member high court of honour of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, unanimously decided to eject Kosor following media interviews and statements deemed detrimental to the HDZ’s reputation. The Zagreb …

Croats will elect their first 12 MEPs on April 14, President Ivo Josipovic announced on Friday.Josipovic has scheduled European parliamentary elections in Croatia under a law which says Croatia should elect European MPs before it joins the European Union on July 1. The country has the right to 12 MPs …

Serbia has massively increased the permitted level of aflatoxins in milk, posing a potential threat to the country’s dairy exports.Serbia has raises the maximum permitted concentration of aflatoxins in milk to 0.5 micrograms per kilo from 0.05 micrograms – a tenfold increase. Goran Knezevic, the Agriculture Minister, said the government …

Opposition MPs interrupted Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on Thursday – angered by his decision to permit local authorities in the Serb-run north to form an ‘association’.Liburn Aliu and Visar Ymeri, MPs from the opposition nationalist Self-Determination Movement, went up to podium of parliament holding a banner as Prime Minister Thaci …

General election all but inevitable, if as seems likely the ethnic Turkish party refuses to form a government.Bulgarians will go to the polls on May 12, President Rosen Plevneliev announced on Thursday in a special address to parliament. The date is predicated on the likely refusal of the ethnic Turkish-dominated …

Turkey will deliver a verbal note to the United Nations in reply to a recent Greek motion that argued that the areas Turkey had granted exploration permits in the Mediterranean were deemed to fall within the Greek continental shelf.

Macedonian political parties on Friday reached a deal ending months of political deadlock and an opposition boycott of Parliament that had threatened the country’s efforts to join the European Union and NATO. In a deal brokered by EU officials, conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski