Balkans

Serbs in northern Kosovo early on Monday stopped and turned back several KFOR vehicles on the road leading to the Jarinje administrative checkpoint. Their local representatives said the passage of NATO troops was “not harmonized with heads of local self-governments in northern Kosovo”.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said that the country wants to join the Azerbaijan- Georgia-Romania-Interconnection liquefied natural gas project as it seeks to diversify its supplies. Serbia currently imports gas only from Russia through Ukraine and Hungary. 

The leaders of Greece’s two biggest parties are due to resume talks Monday to agree on who should be the country’s new prime minister, after reaching a historic power-sharing deal to push through a massive financial rescue deal that will prevent imminent bankruptcy.

Bulgaria’s ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) believes that there are reasons for seeking a cancellation of end-October’s presidential elections and remains ready to discuss various methods of contesting the results.

Six Balkan defence ministers, minus Serbia’s, meeting in Kosovo, have pledged to work closer together on tackling regional stability. Defence Ministers from Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo meeting in Peja, Kosovo, agreed on Friday to boost cooperation on regional security issues.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said it was up to Greece to decide whether it should stay in the euro area or not and not to the authorities in the monetary union. “We would like them to stay… in the end it depends on them,” he said. He added …

The European Commission (EC) has ordered an action plan to be worked out in case Greece leaves the euro area. The issue has been discussed during the G20 summit in Cannes in the frames of informal consultations. “The situation in the euro area has drastically changed after the decision to …

The two-day meeting of the Macedonia-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee will be completed with Friday’s adoption of the final recommendations. Macedonia should get a date for opening of the EU-accession talks and its integration processes must not be held

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government will face a vote of confidence in parliament on Friday evening. The prime minister has called for a “consensus government” to pull the debt-wracked country out of the crisis and implement the terms of a controversial EU bailout plan. Ahead of the crucial vote …

European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek is to visit Belgrade on Thursday. In the frames of the visit Buzek will meet with state leaders and will make an address at the Serbian parliament.