Balkans

Macedonia will lean on the world court ruling related to its name dispute with Greece at the forthcoming UN talks with Athens. Skopje planned to use the ruling in the next set of talks, scheduled for January.  

I expect a new Belgrade- Priština meeting to be held in January and I believe that an agreement is already close, EU facilitator Robert Cooper has stated. When asked whether he was satisfied with the Belgrade-Priština dialogue, Cooper said that he was not. 

Serbia’s Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković says that the government “will absolutely stay on the EU and Kosovo course“. He added that both the EU and Kosovo policy had not failed.

The United States on Tuesday extradited a Muslim Bosnian woman suspected of killing six Croats in 1993 during a war that ripped the region apart, the prosecutor’s office in Sarajevo, Bosnia, said. The woman, Rasema Handanovic, 39, is suspected of taking part in the mass killings of Croatian civilians in …

Russia will take all legal measures available to make Bulgaria pay indemnities over the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project, said Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko. Earlier in December, the Bulgarian government said it will leave the project, which

The Georgian Parliament approved the candidacies of new ambassadors to Greece and Romania on Tuesday. President of Georgia introduced his nominees David Bakradze to Greece and Ilia Giorgadze to Romania to the parliament’s approval. The candidates were interviewed in the committees of the legislative body before they pass approval at …

It will not be possible for Serbia to become a EU member state without formal recognition of Kosovo, said Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. Jeremic remarked that four foreign ministers of EU member states have told him that. In his words, no one from the international community has considered proposing …

Estonian diplomat Aivo Orav is the newly appointed Head of the European Union Delegation to Macedonia, Brussels announced. The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton appointed Orav on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to visit Kosovo on December 19. Merkel’s visit was confirmed by Kosovan Deputy Prime Minister Hajredin Kuci. “Merkel is to visit Kosovo on Monday, December 19, to give support to our institutions,” said Kuci.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov has joined forces with his counterparts from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia on backing the EU integration of the Republic of Moldova.