Balkans

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 …

War crimes defendant Radovan Karadzic was bumped from his usual courtroom and his spot on closed-circuit television at the Hague tribunal on Friday by his former partner Ratko Mladic.

Wartime Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic will appear again before a UN court on July 4, when he will be required to enter a plea to genocide and war crimes charges. He refused to enter a plea to genocide and war crimes charges in a UN court on Friday, …

The prospect of a second bailout for debt-stricken Greece assuaged market fears of default on Friday as the country’s prime minister flew to Luxembourg to present plans for deeper austerity measures.