Balkans

Domagoj Margetic, a journalist from Croatia, says the president of the Republika Srpska tried to bribe and threaten him not to reveal his alleged ties to the Hypo Bank corruption case.Margetic, who wrote series of groundbreaking stories on the Hypo Alpe Adria Banka affair, said in Banja Luka that Dodik, …

Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta pledged to bury his political feud with President Traian Basescu after next month’s parliamentary elections, predicting he will return as premier and turn his full attention to the country’s economic and social challenges.

In a letter to the Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Jose Angel Gurría, the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov stated that Bulgaria confirms its candidacy for full membership.

Following the surprise acquittal in The Hague of two Croatian Army generals, Serbia has launched a diplomatic battle against the decision before the UN and the International Court of Justice.Serbia has launched an international drive against the acquittal of Croatian army generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac by the UN …

Montenegro’s civil society organisations and its Bosniak community have condemned the acquittal of nine former police officers, charged with committing a war crime against refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.The Bosniak community in Montenegro has fiercely criticised the verdict in the trial of nine policemen charged with deportation of …

Romania’s anti-graft drive risks delays after the business of naming new heads for the country’s main anti-corruption institutions hit an obstacle.Romania’s Superior Council of Magistrates, CSM, on Thursday rejected ministerial nominations for the posts of Chief Prosecutor and head of the National Anti-Corruptin Directorate, the DNA. The CSM, tasked with …

The regional police command in Mitrovica, northern Kosovo, has launched an investigation after eight Kosovo Serb policemen refused to intervene during the interethnic clashes in Kroi i Vitakut / Brdjani on Thursday.The eight officers, all ethnic Serbs, disobeyed the order by their Kosovo Albanian superiors from the regional police command …

Ruling coalition names two new ministers and a deputy minister on Thursday after the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, was forced into opposition.Bosnia’s State Parliament on November 22 named Fahrudin Radoncic as the new Security Minister, Zekerijah Osmic as Defence Minister and Edita Djapo as Deputy Finance Minister. All three …

The Serbian War Crimes Prosecution says that an MP is endangering its independence by alleging that it did not prosecute organ trafficking claims in Kosovo in 1990s.Speaking this week at a parliamentary session, Milovan Drecun, the head of the parliamentary commission for Kosovo and Metohija, said that the Serbian War …

Bulgaria confirmed Thursday its desire to become a full-fledged member of the OECD through a letter from Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. The letter was handed to OECD Secretary General Angel Guria by Bulgaria’s Ambassador to France Marin Raykov, according to the press office of Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry. Raykov emphasized Bulgaria’s …