Balkans

Government and opposition leaders have blamed each other for Macedonia’s political impasse in replies to the EU Enlargement Commissioner’s appeal for an end to the crisis.Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the head of opposition Social Democrats, Branko Crvenkovski, confirmed having received letters from Stefan Fuele – but blamed each other …

Primary level and high schools in the mainly Bosniak [Muslim] southwest Sandzak region of Serbia have started teaching classes in the Bosniak language.Students in 12 schools in the Sandzak region had their first classes in the Bosniak language on International Mother Tongue Day, February 21. Esad Dzudzevic, president of the …

A tussle over who has the right to organise the 2013 Belgrade Marathon has led to speculation that the city might end up with two showpiece races.Belgrade Marathon Ltd., a company that has been organising endurances races for two decades, has stated that it will organise this year’s event, although …

After America’s FAA completed its initial inspection of Serbia’s aviation, Serbia hopes the US will allow Belgrade to launch direct flights by year’s end.After the US Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, carried out the first stage of its inspection of Serbian aviation on February 17th, it will decide whether Belgrade meets …

Brussels is likely to reward Serbia for normalising relations with Kosovo with a ‘conditional’ start date for accession talks.In its April report, the European Commission is likely to recommend that Serbia be granted a conditional start date for EU accession talks in June, Balkan Insight has learned from two independent …

Candidates have been named for the vacancies in the Federation entity’s Constitutional Court, which must be filled before it can rule on last week’s no-confidence vote in the government.Zivko Budimir, President of Bosnia’s Federation entity, and his two deputies, on February 20 agreed the names of three candidates to fill …

Zoran Ivanov said he was returning his journalistic prizes and quitting journalism after 40 years in protest against the growing politicisation and subversion of the media.Ivanov’s move comes after he was sacked from Alfa TV on Wednesday, and after the new Serbian owners of the former critically inclined outlet changed …

Following a lawsuit by two NGOs, the Administrative Court has annulled a decision allocating over 2 million euro to civil society ogranizations in 2011, as a result of which the process will have to start again.Two organizations, a hiking club and an environmental NGO, sued the Commission For Allocation of …

The constitutional court in Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska ruled that Serb symbols used by the towns of Banja Luka and Nevesinje discriminated against Bosniaks and Croats.Republika Srpska’s constitutional court ruled on Wednesday that the coats of arms and flags of Banja Luka and Nevesinje contain “symbols of the religious …

The defence lawyer for Johan Tarculovski, the only Macedonian convicted of war crimes by the Hague Tribunal, said he could be given an early release as soon as next month.Tarculovski’s lawyer, Antonio Apostolski, said he had been informed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, that the …