Balkans

The long-running trial against Mihajlo Hrastov, former Croatian special forces policemen, restarted today at Croatia’s supreme court, more than 20 years after he was first charged with war crimes. Hrastov was released from prison last year when the constitutional court dismissed his sentence of seven years imprisonment because it had …

The Montenegrin Foreign Ministry announced on Monday it would back Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić in his run for president of the UN General Assembly. Ministry’s director of multilateral and regional cooperation Zoran Janković said Podgorica

United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton is to visit Sofia on February 5 2012 at the invitation of Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov, the Foreign Ministry said. During her visit, Clinton will meet President Rossen

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s regular quarterly report on Kosovo will be presented at UN Security Council meeting on February 8. The last UNSC session on Kosovo, held late in November, was marked by a heated discussion between the U.S., Great Britain, France and Germany on one side, who called …

Parliament in non-eurozone Bulgaria voted Friday to join an EU budget pact for tighter discipline but with conditions regarding tax policy and exemption from certain financial obligations. “Bulgaria’s parliament supports joining the treaty on stability, coordination and

The dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will continue in the beginning of February. An agreement on Kosovo’s participation in regional forums is expected to be reached in the beginning of next month. The decision should present a compromise between the firm positions of the two countries.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha says Albania will sign an agreement with the EU law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, to institutionalize cooperation on the investigation into organ harvesting allegations. According to a statement, Prime Minister Berisha “agreed fully on the need to sign an agreement or

European Union economics commissioner Olli Rehn said euro-zone governments may have to increase their contribution to Greece’s debt deal and declared he was hopeful agreements could be struck soon to increase euro-zone bailout funds and International Monetary Fund resources. 

The Bulgarian government decided yesterday to grant visa exemption to Turkish citizens who have special (green) passports. The resolution will allow Turkish citizens holding valid special passports to enter and transit through the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria without visas and reside temporarily therein for a period not exceeding …

Serbian President’s “four-point proposal” to resolve the stalemate in ethnically riven North Kosovo has received the thumbs down from local Serbs and from the nationalist opposition in Serbia. Kosovo Serbs have dismissed Serbian President Boris Tadic’s plan to end the turbulence in Northern Kosovo, saying they rejected a similar plan …