Balkans

About 3.5 million people – roughly half the population of Serbia – are now on the social networking site Facebook, a recent survey shows.Half of Serbia’s roughly 7 million people now have an account on the social networking site Facebook, recent data show. Facebook users in the country also represent …

The IMF has approved a two-year stand-by arrangement of 405.3 million euro for the country – but it won’t get all the money at once.The IMF loan, approved on September 26, is designed to support Bosnia’s economic programme for the next two years, ease the effects of the “external environment …

MPs who also own TV and radio stations have until the end of the month to choose between keeping their political careers or their media outlets.Boris Stojmenov, MP and head of the small VMRO-Macedonian party, which is part of Nikola Gruevski’s government, has until September 30 to decide whether to …

The Serbian war veteran association has canceled its “Shame Parade“, saying they do not want to be manipluated by the politicans.When Serbia’s LGBT community announced that it would hold its annual ‘Pride Parade’ on October 6, the Serbian war veterans said that they wanted to take advantage of the media …

More than 700 EU backed cross-regional projects aimed at helping reconciliation and improving the economy have been conducted in Serbia and neighbouring countries.Serbia is currently cooperating with seven neighbouring countries – Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia- on various issues including ecology, education and agriculture.

Montenegro can continue to count on NATO’s backing, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Foreign Minister Nebojsa Kaludjerovic in New York.Meeting on the sidelines of the 67th United Nations General Assembly in New York, Montenegrin Foreign Minister Kaludjerovic informed Rasmussen of Montenegro’s progress as part of the Membership Action Plan, …

The government appears to have backed away from its earlier pledge to scrap a mass of costly government agencies, with only seven out of 130 earmarked for abolition.Serbia’s new government has backtracked on pledges to scrap costly state agencies that are widely seen as bodies for employing the friends and …

In a blow to Prime Minister Victor Ponta, the Constitutional Court has ruled that parliament has no right to decide who should represent Romania at EU meetings.Romania’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday ruled that parliament has no right to decide on whether the President of Prime Minister should represent Romania at …

USAID and the Kosovo government have agreed a development deal for the agricultural sector, which has been struggling with high-interest loans.The United States and Kosovo on Thursday signed a groundbreaking agricultural development credit scheme worth over €20 million euro.

Police clashed with protesters hurling petrol bombs and bottles in central Athens Wednesday after an anti-government rally called as part of a general strike in Greece turned violent. Riot police used tear gas and pepper spray against several hundred demonstrators after the violence broke out near the country’s parliament. Protesters …