Balkans

European Parliament Rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek said in Priština yesterday that the EU had not set any official date when visas for Kosovo would be lifted. The statement was Lunacek’s reaction to Hashim Thaci’s recent comment that, if he were reelected as prime minister, the EU would

Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Simeon Djankov is on a three-day visit to Georgia. On Monday, Djankov he participated with a public lecture in a conference entitled “Making a Difference for Entrepreneurs: Reforming Business Regulation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Olli Rehn said on Sunday (November 28th) that Greece may be given more time to repay a 110 billion-euro emergency loan that the bloc and the IMF extended to the country in May. Finance ministers have agreed to look into the possibility of …

The EU-Macedonia Joint Parliamentary Committee kicks off a two-day meeting in Brussels on Monday (November 29th). According to draft conclusions quoted by Macedonia’s MIA news agency, the committee will back the European Commission’s recommendation to open accession talks with Skopje. The panel is also expected to urge Macedonia and Greece …

An appeals chamber of the Court of BiH will discuss a motion Monday (November 29th) filed by Branimir Glavas against his war crimes sentence. The former Croatian lawmaker was sentenced in July in Croatia to eight years in prison for war crimes against Serbian civilians during the 1991-1995 conflict. Glavas, …

Serbian FM Vuk Jeremić says that Serbia had developed a strategy for its dialogue with Priština, which, he said, is still not ready to start the dialogue with Belgrade. As far as Belgrade is concerned, Jeremić said that a strategy for the talks on all issues had been developed in …

Kosovo’s Outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister Vlora Citaku has said that Pristina’s platform for the upcoming talks with Serbia will be based on Kosovo’s Constitution and Martti

European Parliament (EP) rapporteur for Croatia Hannes Swoboda believes that Zagreb’s accession talks could be wrapped up in the first half of next year. In a draft report quoted by local media Friday (November 26th), he notes that accession negotiations could be completed by then if the country maintains its …

The EU might grant Montenegro candidate status next month, an official with the European Commission delegation to Podgorica said on Saturday (November 27th). Clive Rumbold was speaking at the annual session of the Central European Initiative Parliamentary Assembly in Budva. He recalled that each country will be assessed on its …

A meeting of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC) foreign ministers took place in Thessaloniki on Friday (November 26th). Participants adopted a joint declaration on fighting climate change in the Black Sea region that will be submitted to the UN Climate Change Conference in Mexico next month. Romania takes over …