Balkans

Belgrade has condemned the statement from former UN envoy who said that Serbia should be denied EU membership until it recognizes Kosovo.The newly appointed Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic warned on Sunday that the statement by the former UN envoy to the Kosovo status process, Martti Ahtisaari, that Serbia should …

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was to confer with his coalition allies on Monday on spending cuts needed to unlock a 31.5-billion-euro loan instalment from the country’s EU-IMF rescue package. Samaras was to see his two partners — socialist Evangelos Venizelos and moderate leftist Fotis Kouvelis — at 1500 GMT, …

The owner of a restaurant in a Montenegrin village has thrown out a woman and her five small children for being Serbs.Veselinka Rajkovic, a resident of Podgorica, was visiting the monastery of Prevlaka accompanied by a Serbian Orthodox nun – the children’s religous teacher. Rajkovic told Vijesti, a Podgorica based …

A group of citizens is demanding the scrapping of the 1995 Dayton settlement, the return of the old Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the abolition of the two entities.The “Anti-Dayton Group” organized a gathering in Sarajevo for citizens to sign a petition demanding that the two entities, the Federation …

Around 40 editors at Croatian state television will be sacked or demoted, a local newspaper has reported – but bosses of the station deny carrying out a purge.According to Vecernji List, a Croatian daily newspaper, the TV’s new management has already replaced seven out of nine editors in charge of …

A classified report, parts of which have been leaked, says an organised strategy existed after the end of the Kosovo war to assassinate political rivals of the current ruling party.Dozens of senior political figures and activists in the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, were killed after the end of the …

Prime Minister designate presents the programme of the future government whose 19 members took their oaths of office on Friday.The sound of the national anthem and the presence of a ceremonial guard marked the ceremony when Serbia’s new cabinet members took their oath of office. They failed to be sworn …

Montenegro’s parliament has voted to cut short its current mandate, setting the stage for early elections likely to be held in October.The parliament’s session was shortened at the initiative of the ruling coalition, which wanted a fresh mandate for the country’s EU accession talks. Montenegro started membership talks with the …

The result of the referendum on President Traian Basescu is hard to call; no on knows whether enough people will turn out for the result to be valid.There is still no obvious outcome to the presidential referendum on July 29, when Romanians are to vote on whether to impeach country’s …

Tirana’s District Court issued a not guilty verdict on Thursday to Armando Kasaj, former head of IT in the Prime Minister’s office, who was accused of wiping the server containing footage of the January 21, 2011 riots.Based on scientific evidence produced in cooperation with US Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, …