Balkans

European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule, during a visit to Skopje, has expressed his satisfaction with the dialog between Macedonia and the EU and with the progress achieved. The Commission said the European program is the core of the public debate, despite the existence of lots of challenging issues.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says that vandalism, threats and attacks on facilities of the Serbian Orthodox Church are on the rise in Kosovo, which could make difficult the on-progress Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. In his latest report, the UN chief says the number of crimes against minority

Bosnia will organize local elections on October 7 in 139 municipalities, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced on Monday in Sarajevo. CEC President, Branko Peric, said that 3,213,562 citizens will be eligible for vote, 190,000 more than the last local election in 2008. “Some of the financing will come from …

Greek political parties have to assure stability, confidence and solidarity to complete the effort to restore the economy. That is what Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who handed in his resignation to the President of the country Carolos Papoulias said.

Serbia’s incumbent president Boris Tadic and opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic will contest the second round of presidential elections. Preliminary estimates based on votes

The European Commission said on Monday that the next Greek government should respect the rescue agreements after the rise of anti-bailout parties at weekend elections. ‘The Commission hopes and expects that the future government of Greece will respect the engagements that Greece has entered into,’ commission spokesman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen …

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Bosnia’s internal stability is has a direct impact on the peace and stability of the Balkans. On Friday in Sarajevo, Davutoglu stated during a joint press conference

On Monday Brussels and Macedonia start another round of high-level talks (the second), intended to increase the reforms to aid future accession negotiations. In Skopje the EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele will meet the country’s

Albanian President Bamir Topi will not arrive in Ukraine to attend the summit of state leaders of Central and East European countries in Yalta on 11-12 May. Topi said that in this way he expressed his protest against “inhuman treatment” of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who does not …

The NATO chief Friday urged “restraint” this weekend when tens of thousands of Kosovo Serbs with dual citizenship vote in the Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections. “I strongly urge all leaders and all communities to