Balkans

The EU has urged Serbia to transfer control of the witness protection unit from the police to the Ministry of Justice, as the witnesses are often threatened by those responsible for their safety.According to Jelko Kacin, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Serbia, the Ministry of Interior’s Witness Protection Unit, WPU, …

The Health Minister is the sixth official of the Romanian cabinet to resign in recent months.Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta became on Tuesday an interim Health Minister, following unexpected resignation of Vasile Cepoi from the cabinet.

Unconfirmed reports of the murder of a young ethnic Macedonian in Greece have raised tensions in Macedonia.The Macedonian government has called for restraint and condemned “all attempts to manipulate this sensitive and serious issue,” following unconfirmed reports in Macedonia’s media that a young ethnic Macedonian has been killed in Greece.

The Serbian authorities are investigating the involvement of a Belgrade DJ in war crimes allegedly committed in Bosnia by paramilitaries known as Arkan’s Tigers.On the request of the Serbian War Crime Prosecutor’s Office, Belgrade police is investigating the role of Srdjan Golubovic, a Belgrade DJ, into war crimes committed in …

The US Ambassador to Bosnia, Patrick Moon, has called for reform of the Bosniak-Croat Federation entity, but said he would not propose any solutions.The US embassy in Sarajevo said that in the past six months, the ambassador Patrick Moon has been encouraging individuals, political leaders and NGOs to start a …

The Serbian Constitutional Court has ruled that some aspects of the law that gives the same rights to both the Partisans and the Chetniks are not in accordance with the constitution.Serbia’s Constitutional Court has quashed a number of clauses within the 2005 Law on the Equalisation of Chetniks and Partisans, …

The Romanian government has cancelled the privatisation of the country’s largest chemical company, Oltchim.The bid to privatise Romania’s state–owned chemical producer, Oltchim, had been cancelled, Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced on Monday evening, after the previous bid winner, Dan Diaconescu, failed to pay for the majority stake. “We have to …

Serbia’s Socialist-led government has expressed its readiness to resume talks with Kosovo at the technical level.

As Serbia awaits an EU progress report which is likely to be negative, the country’s nationalist government has started signalling a change in their attitudes towards EU integration.Suzana Grubjesic, the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU integration, has said that Serbia is in no rush to meet the …

At the trial of Mevlid Jasarevic, who is charged with shooting at the US embassy in Sarajevo last year, a state investigator testified that the defendant’s computer contained photos of weapons and bomb making manuals.Irhad Kos, a witness from the State Investigative and Protection Agency, said that Jasarevic’s computer contained …