Balkans

VMRO-DPMNE and Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) have reached an agreement to form a ruling coalition. The leaders of the two parties, Nikola Gruevski and Ali Ahmeti, have agreed to divide the ministerial posts 2:1 in

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul has postponed his visit to neighboring Bulgaria, initially scheduled for July 3 and 4, for a week later, due to the opening of his country’s first new Parliamentary session. Besides his Bulgarian visit, the Turkish President has also postponed his upcoming trip to Montenegro.

The Greek parliament will this afternoon begin debating the new austerity package that has been demanded by EU leaders. The Greek parliament will this afternoon begin debating a new package of tax increases and spending cuts which, if passed, will guarantee renewed funding from the European Union and IMF.

As Minorities Minister recommends re-run elections for Bosniak National Council before winter, the Bosniak Cultural Community, BKZ, led by Muamer Zukorlic, gives cool response. Serbia’s new Minister for Human and Minority Rights says fresh elections for the Bosniak National Council, representing the country’s Muslim community, should take place by the …

The Macedonian parliament held its first session after the June 5 national poll, despite angry protestors surrounding the assembly building demanding accountability over the fatal police beating that happened on election

Kosovo hopes the two sides can find a compromise to the damaging trade blockade at next week’s meeting of members of CEFTA, the Central European Free Trade Agreement. The head of Kosovo’s dialogue delegation with Serbia, Edita Tahiri, said on Friday that she hoped the trade dispute between Kosovo

Prime Ministers of Macedonia and Greece – Nikola Gruevski and Georgios Papandreou, met on Thursday in Brussels. The two declared readiness to solve the long-burning name dispute in the frames of the process within the UN. They also discussed issues of mutual interest for the two countries.

European Union leaders gave Croatia the green light on Friday to join the bloc as they endorsed the closure of negotiations with Zagreb, a diplomat said. EU leaders meeting in Brussels adopted a declaration commending Croatia for its “intensive efforts, which have allowed accession negotiations to reach their final stage.”

Bulgaria will insist on joining the Schengen zone under the current conditions, and only then will consider complying with additional criteria, according to the country’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov. The Bulgarian PM has been firm any additional conditions must be the same for all EU countries. “Currently we have fulfilled …

Enlargement Commissioner tells PM in Brussels to speed up reforms and work on solving ‘name’ row with Greece. Macedonia’s new government has to continue making progress on necessary reforms, or it