Balkans

Serbia’s ruling Progressives say that the new government’s results in fighting corruption would become visible “very soon”.Serbian Progressive Party is preparing corruption-related arrests for September, Balkan Insight has learned from the party.The tackling corruption was one of the main goals in their election programme and campaign. Aleksandar Vucic, Serbian Deputy …

The Agriculture Minister of the Bosnian Federation entity says that any similarity between his party’s slogan and the one used in a recent agriculture commercial is coincidental.In a marketing campaign entitled “Buy Domestic,” the Agriculture Minister of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, Jerko Ivankovic Lijanovic, encourages the population to buy domestic products. …

Bulgarian officials have begun verifying thousands of petition signatures calling for a referendum on the government’s decision to abandon construction of the Belene nuclear plant.State workers will spend the next three months verifying the names, addresses and social security numbers of the 770,000 signatures on the petition, which was submitted …

Opposition lawmakers are too afraid to sign a petition asking Kosovo’s Parliament to launch a probe into the work of the former secret agency SHIK, says an opposition MP.In a letter sent to the press, Florin Krasniqi, an MP from the Self-determination (Vetëvendosje) Movement, said that so far he has …

Romania’s Interior Minister and his deputy have resigned following controversy over the referendum to impeach the country’s President.“There were unacceptable political pressures on me. I have submitted my resignation to protect my honour,” Interior Minister Ioan Rus said on Monday. “I cannot accept that the ministry be part of not …

Bucharest is making its first repayment on a rescue package loan borrowed from international lenders.Romania is to repay 671 million euros on Monday, the first tranche of a 20-billion-euro rescue package from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank.

A Macedonian gay rights organisation announced on Thursday that the first Pride Parade in Skopje would be held next year.The organisation – the Council of the LGBT United – held a meeting and decided to form a body tasked with organising the first gay pride parade. According to the organisers, …

Thirteen years after its signing, a border deal between Bosnia and Croatia, although not yet ratified, is the target of criticism by the public and politicians in both countries.Although Bosnia and Croatia share an about 1,000 kilometers long border, they have never ratified the 1999 border agreement signed by two …

ATHENS – Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will host Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker and talk to the leaders of France and Germany this month, the state news agency said on Friday, in his bid to salvage Greece’s sagging economy.

New Serbian leaders have appointed the director of the Security-Information Agency and the Council for National Security secretary.Three months after the May general elections in Serbia, the ruling Progressives occupied top security positions in the country. Aleksandar Vucic, First Deputy PM and Defence Minister, was appointed secretary of the Council …