Balkans

Montenegrin PM Igor Lukšić and opposition parties will hold today a new round of talks on the language taught in schools and the name of that subject. PZP will table the proposition that the school subject be called native language and literature.

Germany’s federal Ministry of Interior has no intention whatsoever to reverse its negative opinion on the readiness of Bulgaria and Romania to enter the Schengen free movement area. “At present, Sofia and Bucharest are still not ready to join the Schengen Agreement,” stated

EU president Herman Van Rompuy ruled out today any question of Greece leaving the euro zone and indicated he was willing to serve a second term to help Europe overcome the debt crisis. 

Stefan Fuele is due in Macedonia on Monday, conducting a closer inspection of recent reforms enacted with a view to meeting EU demands. Fuele’s visit comes one month before the expected publication of a European Commission report on the country.

Leaders of the six biggest political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina will meet in Mostar on Monday to discuss the formation of a new state government, eleven months after the country’s last election. Ahead of the meeting, members of two political parties in the Republika Srpska met in the mountain …

The IMF agreed standby loan of about 1 billion euro aimed at underwriting Serbia’s economic stability and attracting much-needed foreign investment. After a previous IMF deal expired earlier this year, Serbian officials sought a new precautionary arrangement with the IMF, worried

The Republic of Srpska (RS) will not give up on its request to have four ministries in the Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Council of Ministers. This was announced by RS president Milorad Dodik, who also specified that one of

Serbian President Boris Tadić opened the ninth UNESCO summit South-East European heads of state on Friday morning. The summit dubbed “Contemporary Art and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe” is held at the Viminacium archeological site, eastern Serbia.

Hopes are high that Belgrade and Pristina will on Friday accept an EU-worded compromise formula on the vexed issue of Kosovo custom stamps. Kosovo and Serbia are to get back to the negotiation table on Friday in the sixth round of EU-mediated talks.

The two Balkan countries on Thursday in Sofia signed a Euro-Atlantic cooperation memorandum in which they agreed to put past feuds behind them.