Balkans

The EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule on Thursday welcomed the apparent end of a two-year political stalemate in Albania, after parliament approved two laws that required cross-party consensus. 

Greece’s new coalition government headed by Prime Minister Lukas Papademos secured enough votes to win the confidence vote in the country’s parliament on Wednesday. A total of 255 lawmakers in the country’s 300-member parliament voted in favor of the new government that was formed last week by the majority Socialists, …

Belgrade team chief Borislav Stefanović will meet with northern Kosovo Serb representatives on Thursday. They will discuss the next round of the Belgrade-Priština talks

The Security Council on Wednesday extended for another year the European Union stabilization force (EUFOR) that is tasked with ensuring that all sides continue to comply with the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement that ended fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Azerbaijan will make good on commitments to supply Bulgaria with 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said this week. Appearing with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Monday in Baku, Parvanov said the two countries are ready to make official a deal struck last year to …

Borislav Stefanovic, head of Belgrade’s negotiating team with Pristina, has announced that Brussels-mediated talks will resume next week. Brussels officials have persuaded Serbia to return to the negotiating table with the Kosovo government in Pristina.

United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the United States would stand with Greece through “difficult times,” in a phone call with former Greek prime minister George Papandreou, the White House said. Obama called Papandreou, who resigned last week amid the country’s massive debt crisis, to thank him for …

Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to stagnate politically mainly because of politicians’ reluctance to compromise and engage in dialogue, as wells as their tendency to abuse the system, even as State institutions face functional and economic pressure that has undermined their efficiency, the UN Security Council heard on Tuesday. 

The Netherlands remains strongly opposed to the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the visa-free Schengen zone at this stage, Dutch interior ministry spokesperson Alexander Vanderee told Bulgarian National Radio on November 15 2011.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, has extended accolades to Finland’s new position on the country’s Schengen accession. Mladenov said Sofia is applauding the news and voices certainty the change