Balkans

Tens of thousands of people gathered on Saturday (February 5th) in front of the parliament building in Belgrade at a rally organised by the opposition Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). Its leader, Tomislav Nikolic, gave the government two months to call early elections or face the risk of continuous protests. SNS …

Anti-government rallies organised by the opposition in Tirana and three other cities ended on Friday (February 4th) without incident. According to the organisers, the demonstrations were attended by 100,000 people

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has called a political leaders’ meeting for Monday (February 7th), to discuss the current situation in the parliament following a boycott staged by the opposition. Opposition parties led by SDSM walked out of parliament last week to protest the freezing of the private A1 television channel’s …

The Netherlands and France have asked for a monitoring mechanism for the visa-free regime for BiH and Albania. In a letter sent to the European Commission (EC), the two countries said the time has come to introduce such a mechanism and sanctions should be imposed in case of abuses. Citizens …

Greek President Karolos Papoulias and his Cyprus counterpart Demetris Christofias on Thursday expressed hope that calm will prevail in Egypt and Cairo’s stand over issues of national interest to Athens and Nicosia will not change.

Albania’s Socialist opposition is expected to hold simultaneous rallies in four Albanian cities on Friday, in an effort to put pressure on the government of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and force early elections.

The Bundestag will ratify the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Serbia and the EU on February 10th, Michael Stubgen, head of a German parliamentary delegation, said on

The foreign affairs committee of the lower chamber of parliament says the allegations of human organ trafficking in Kosovo should be investigated by an international commission, media reported on Wednesday (February 2nd). The panel discussed the report by Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty — who is Swiss — on …

Settlement of the Cyprus issue could be reached by the end of 2011, under the condition that leader of Turkish Cypriots Dervis Eroglu and Ankara accept a solution based on the formula of creating a federation of two communities in the island,  President of the Republic of Cyprus Demetris said.

Finland’s minister of immigration and European affairs will pay a visit to the two countries next week. Astrid Thors will visit Bucharest on 6-7 February and Sofia on 7-8 February. In Bucharest, Thors will meet the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Baconschi, and Minister of Administration and Interior Traian …