Balkans

Macedonia’s government is mulling recommendations from the OSCE’s election body, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, that ministers stop abusing their official positions during election campaigns.The ODIHR says that during election campaigns, ministers should perform only “technical duties”, and not appear at public events such as openings …

More than half of the Twitter followers of Albanian opposition Socialist leader Edi Rama are fake accounts, analysis has revealed.According to the Fake Follower Check application, 55 per cent of Rama’s 32,874 followers on Twitter are spam accounts, 34 per cent are inactive and only 11 per cent are considered …

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, will be on an official one-day visit to the Bulgarian capital on 31 August. His schedule hosts events such as the opening ceremony of the second metro diameter of Sofia Metro which was partly financed through European funds, and meetings with …

The Bulgarian government decided during its meeting on 29 August to establish a new national mechanism to coordinate the activities for the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region*. The establishment of the national mechanism corresponds to the requirements of good governance and effective institutional cooperation and partnership …

Croatia will be divided statistically into two regions from next year, instead of three, to better exploit EU funds worth almost 14 billion euro by 2020, the government announced.Regional development and EU funds minister Branko Grcic said on Wednesday that establishing two statistical regions, Continental and Adriatic, instead of the …

Bosnia’s main Croat parties have presented their proposals for constitutional changes to meet EU demands – but a group of non-governmental organizations has deemed them irresponsible.The Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, one of six ruling parties in Bosnia’s state government, sent its list of proposed amendments to the Bosnian constitution on …

Albania’s new President, Bujar Nishani, is to start his first state visit on Wednesday in neighouring Kosovo.In his three-day visit to Kosovo, President Nishani is expected to hold meetings with Pristina’s political leaders, including President Atifete Jahjaga, the speaker of parliament Jakup Krasniqi and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.

Former ruling Democrat Liberal Party, PDL, has formed a new alliance of conservative parties ahead of December’s general elections – bu they have yet to come up with a name.“We are proposing a political platform based on centre-right values with the main aim of winning the next parliamentary elections,” Vasile …

The governments of Bulgaria and Israel have expressed hopes that they will be able to solve together the case of the Burgas Bus Bombing, according to their Deputy PMs Tsvetanov and Ya’alon the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said. Bulgarian Interior Minister and Deputy PM Tsvetan Tsvetanov received Wednesday in Sofia Israel’s …

Lawyer for Serbian hooligans jailed for killing a French football fan demands retrial as new witness comes forward, disputing the circumstances of his death.Retired policemen Dragan C, who was allegedly present when 28-year-old Brice Taton was fatally attacked by Serbian hooligans in 2009, has sent a letter to a Belgrade …