Balkans

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.

The Montenegrin parliament postponed until Wednesday the debate on electoral law, which was scheduled for Tuesday. The decision was announced following a meeting between Prime Minister Igor Lukšić and opposition leaders.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced Momcilo Perisic, formerly a general with the Yugoslav Army, VJ, to 27 years in prison for crimes committed in Sarajevo, Srebrenica and Zagreb.

An assembly of Albanians from Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja has adopted a declaration calling for dialogue with Serbia and Brussels, and pledging to boycott the forthcoming census. The assembly of ethnic Albanian leaders from the ethnically mixed border region sent their request for talks to Belgrade and the European Union, …

A fresh round of talks to decide on the formation of a new government in Bosnia and Herzegovina has failed to achieve consensus, eleven months after the country’s population voted. Leaders from Bosnia’s six largest political parties gathered in the city of Mostar yesterday to try to find a compromise …

PM Mirko Cvetković today in Belgrade held a meeting with foreign ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement, gathered in the capital for the organization’s summit. Cvetković stated on the occasion that Serbia saw as its most important goal to preserve the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, while its foreign policy priority …

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić and his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Kamel Amr planted a tree at the Park of Friendship in Belgrade on Monday. It came 50 years since the planting of the first tree in the park, and is meant to symbolize friendship between peoples.

Serbian Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic said that the agreement reaches in Brussels about the customs stamps is an opportunity for lifting the embargo on Serbian goods set by Kosovo’s authorities. According to the minister, Belgrade will not accept Kosovo’s customs officers and neither would it accept for the revenues …