Balkans

Finland’s President Tarja Halonen has arrived here for a two-day visit and is holding meetings with Serbia’s top officials. She was welcomed with a ceremony in front of the Palace of Serbia, and is meeting with SerbianPresident Boris Tadić. Finland’s President is also to meet Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković …

The Bulgarian Government will build a fence along the border with Turkey, after a second outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) since January has threatened local farmers with devastation. The decision was taken on March 30 2011.

As foreign ambassadors reaffirm their support for the international administrator in Bosnia, Croat and Serb parties protest recent decisions on government formation. The Peace Implementation Council, PIC, a group of 55 countries and international organisations that sponsor and direct peace implementation process in Bosnia, indicated their support for High

Top EU official Stefan Fule warned Albania’s feuding political parties on Wednesday that failure to resolve the nearly two-year long political crisis is stopping the country’s EU progress dead in its tracks. “If a solution is not found the [European] Commission will find it very hard to provide a positive …

Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi insists that Kosovo should request that Serbia return of original civil registry books, instead of copies as Belgrade has suggested. “For us, copies of the civil registry books have no value,”

The Serbian authorities have decided to postpone elections for the Bosniak (Muslim) National Council, previously set to take place on April 17. This was announced on Wednesday in Belgrade by Local Administration and Human and Minority Rights Minister Milan Marković.

Serbian Deputy PM Božidar Đelić says that if necessary reforms are not implemented by September, Serbia will wait a year for the beginning for the EU accession negotiations. “Serbia has a huge reform program and now is the time to do things and not go to the elections,“ he pointed …

The leader of opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) Branko Crvenkovski announced that his party would participate in the upcoming elections. “Nikola Gruevski (The Prime Minister) does not wish for a fair and democratic elections to take place. He wants no opposition at the elections, but we will not …

Skop Businessman Iliya Gechev from Kavadartsi is one of the names that would most likely be elected by Macedonia’s opposition for the Prime Ministerial post. The rest candidates are former minister for Euro Integration and former leader of the party of the Social Democracy Union of Macedonia (SDSM) Radmila Sekrerisnka …

The Kosovska Mitrovica municipality decided this week to cease cooperation and communication with the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX. The councilors in the majority Serb, northern part of the ethnically divided town said their decision will be valid until the mission begins to act and work