Balkans

Macedonia celebrates Thursday the 20th anniversary of the declaration of its independence from the former Yugoslavia. The central celebration will be held on Thursday evening in downtown Skopje.

Montenegrin PM Igor Lukšić and the opposition reached an agreement Thursday on the name of the language and subject in the Montenegrin education system. The agreement opens the possibility for the opposition to support the election bill at the parliament.

Albania’s Socialist opposition returned to parliament on Monday, ending a three-month boycott, but the country’s path towards EU accession may have been affected, warns one think tank. The Socialist opposition started boycotting parliament in protest against what it alleged were irregularities in the May 8 race for the post of …

Greek Foreign Minister Stavros Lambrinidis said on Wednesday in Belgrade that Serbia “deserves to be given EU candidate status”. The Greek official also pledged his country’s support to that end.

On September 2 France extradited war crimes suspect Milorad Momic to Croatia, the Croatian Interior Ministry said. Momic was arrested in France on a warrant issued by Interpol in February 2011, Aleksandra Ljuba.

Greek FM Stavros Lambrinidis believes Serbia will become EU candidate by the end of the year, and calls for a continuation of the Belgrade-Priština dialogue. He said that the dialogue can help Serbia’s EU integration.

The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompey has encouraged Kosovo’s President Atifete Jahjaga to continue in its dialogue with Serbia. Van Rompey said on Tuesday that dialogue needed to continue between the two countries to help make progress on remaining issues.

European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said he is optimistic that the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece will be solved by the end of the year. Fule was on a visit to Macedonia. The European Commission encouraged the two countries to take actions and solve the problem as soon as …

“Macedonia can count on Germany when it comes to the European perspective. It is of mutual interest,” said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle after meeting with Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki in Berlin on Monday. “Germany is aware that all countries in the West Balkans have European perspective,” Westerwelle remarked.

The EU still does not have an ambassador to Macedonia. The procedure for the election of the new diplomat has been launched and some 17 candidates gave applied so far. The new EU ambassador is expected to be appointed by mid-September.