Balkans

Croatia and Slovenia managed to increase trade by ten percent last year, officials said at a joint meeting on Tuesday. The increase in trade indicates a new development in the countries’ economic relations, participants at a round table in the northern Croatian town of Tuheljske Toplice agreed.

The OSCE hopes that Albania will hold free and fair local elections on May 8th, the mission’s head Eugen Wollfarth said on Monday (April 11th) in an interview with Top Channel TV. The OSCE’s Office for Democratic

UN war crimes tribunal chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said on Monday (April 11th) that BiH’s co-operation with the court is good. After meeting with BiH Presidency Chairman Nebojsa Radmanovic and BiH presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic in Sarajevo, Brammertz stressed that the arrest of the two remaining war crimes fugitives, Ratko …

EULEX insists on concrete evidence before it starts investigating Council of Europe Rapporteur Dick Marty’s allegations against former Kosovo Liberation Army members. “We have opened a preliminary investigation. Of

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Serbia on April 19th, it was announced on Monday (April 11th) by diplomatic sources in Moscow. Belgrade will be the first leg of a Balkan tour that will include Montenegro, Slovenia and Macedonia.

The Macedonian parliament has selected Boris Kondarko for State Electoral Commission chairperson. Kondarko was nominated by the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), whose MPs did not attend the session, because they were boycotting the institutions’ work. The move fulfills all requirements for dissolving the parliament and organizing early …

The date of Bulgaria’s presidential and local elections will be decided through dialogue between MPs, President Georgi Parvanov announced on Tuesday. Parvanov spoke after holding consultations with the main political parties on the appointment of members of the Central Electoral Commission, CEC.

The EU’s top official on Tuesday called on Greece to keep up the “courageous” overhaul of its ailing economy, the source of widespread protests, in order to “preserve” the country’s future.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has decided to send observers to monitor the early elections in Macedonia. According to PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu the organization decided to send observers although no official invitation had been received.

UN war crimes tribunal chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz visited Sarajevo on Monday (April 11th) for talks with BiH Presidency Chairman Nebojsa Radmanovic and BiH presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic. The visit preceded Brammertz’s report on co-operation by former Yugoslav countries that he is due to submit to the UN Security Council …