Balkans

President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik met with EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, June 6 2011. EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele on Monday opened a dialogue aimed at examining the work of the judiciary in Bosnia

Chief UN prosecutor Serge Brammertz has said that Croatia is cooperating with the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, but missing military documents have yet to be delivered.

At the trial of Radovan Karadzic, a witness says that Bosniak civilians were deported from Grbavica, Sarajevo in 1992, while Karadzic maintains that the crimes committed there were not organised. Prosecution witness Radomir Neskovic, former Vice President of the Executive Board with the Serbian Democratic Party, SDS, explained that members …

Bulgarian president Georgi Purvanov said that Bulgaria would support any compromise in Macedonia’s name dispute but the search for a “geographic” name – acceptable to all sides – might cause tension in Bulgaria.

Serbian PM Mirko Cvetković met in Nicosia today with Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias during a visit “intended to improve relations between the two counties”. Cvetković laid a wreath at the statue of former Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III.

Macedonia’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party has declared victory in Sunday’s general elections, claiming they have won almost half of the seats in the parliament. “The VMRO DPMNE-led coalition has won these elections,” Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski told supporters late on Sunday.

Albania’s Minister of Education announced in a meeting with his Kosovo counterpart on Friday that both countries would work on producing joint textbooks for first-graders. “We will soon have textbooks on the market for children abroad [outside Albania], based on a common programme,” the Albanian Education Minister, Myqerem Tafaj, said. …

Serbian President Boris Tadić will begin a two-day visit to Brussels on Monday by meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. His office said that Tadić is going to hold a lecture on Serbia’s EU integration at the European Policy Center on Tuesday.

U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Mary Warlick has stated that Washington “strongly supports Serbia in its EU integration”. She also stressed that the dialogue between Belgrade and Priština “is very important and expected to result in great progress in the coming months”.

Ratko Mladic’s arrest has provided opportunities for a dialog, which should replace the bloodsheds in the Balkans, said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “Mladic’s arrest is important because of two reasons. First of all, it is a message to all mass murderers that the world will not put up …