Balkans

Promises given by leaders in northern Kosovo need to be translated into reality, head of NATO peacekeeping force says. KFOR Commander Erhard Drews said that he is not satisfied with the level of freedom of movement provided to international peacekeeping forces in northern, Serb-run parts of Kosovo. 

During its presidency Montenegro will be in charge of organizing and hosting several large institutional meetings, including the Ministerial Council of the Energy Community. Montenegrin presidency coincides with Montenegro’s push

Björn von Sydow (Sweden, SOC), Chairman of the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and rapporteur on the situation in Kosovo*, will make a field visit on 2-4 November 2011 to evaluate the political situation, a press release of the Council of Europe …

KFOR troops removed a barricade in the village of Ribariće near the Brnjak administrative crossing early on Friday. KFOR pushed one of the trucks that had been used to block the road into a roadside ravine. Serbs say that a large number of KFOR troops pushed the truck using their …

Council of Europe (CoE) Special Rapporteur Dick Marty on Friday attended a session of the organization’s sub-committee on crime and terrorism. The meeting was held in the Serbian parliament in Belgrade.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has stated that NATO will not allow recent tensions in Kosovo to turn back time. He added that in the past 12 years KFOR had helped turn one of Europe’s hotbeds into a largely peaceful place. Rasmussen conferred with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in …

A majority of members of the Kosovo assembly in Priština rejected on Thursday demands of the opposition Self-Determination Movement. The Self-Determination Movement requested the Kosovo police to unilaterally remove the roadblocks in northern Kosovo and called on the Kosovo Albanian government to cancel the dialogue with Belgrade. With 54 votes …

A member of the Kosovo dialogue team says the EU envoy has called for a new round of talks between Pristina and Belgrade in November, and Kosovo is willing to attend. The next round of Kosovo-Serbia talks, on technical issues, may be held in mid-November, if the two sides accept …

Macedonia’s Parliament has made public its conclusions on the proposals outlined in the latest European Commission progress report. Late last night, the parliament acknowledged that the report reflected the real situation with regard to Macedonia’s achieved reforms, and obliged competent bodies to analyze recommendations made in the report to enable …

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Thursday hailed “a new era, a new chapter” for the debt-strapped nation after Europe’s leaders sealed a major deal to contain the eurozone debt crisis. The deal notably will cut 100 billion euros off Greece’s 350-billion-euro debt mountain thanks to an agreement between the …