Balkans

Early mayoral elections were held in the municipality of Istok in Kosovo on Sunday. Several minor incidents at polling stations were reported during the voting. The elections went without any major problems, but several political parties and the NGO coalition “Democracy in Action” stated that there were incidents reported.

The Spanish government has decided to extradite suspected war criminal Veselin Vlahovic, who is wanted by Bosnia, Serbia, and Montenegro for a variety of crimes, but Spanish authorities did not indicate to which country Vlahovic will be extradited.

Serbian President Boris Tadic said that Serbia and Croatia have talked about finding a solution that could allow an out-of-court settlement and trials before regular courts to replace the genocide lawsuits the two countries have filed against one another at the International Court of Justice, ICJ.

Charles Tannock, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Montenegro, has said that the European Commission will likely complete its report on Montenegro’s readiness to become an EU candidate by the fall, which could allow the country to obtain EU candidate status by the end of this year.

On the last stop of his Balkans tour, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg visited Kosovo and met with President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. Steinberg praised the Kosovo government for the most recent municipal elections, claiming that such elections signal the building of an inclusive …

Prime Minister George Papandreou said that Greece may have to use a proposed EU-IMF financial aid package. On last Sunday, Papandreou said resorting to the mechanism is not his country’s ” first option ” , but it may be needed. ” The question remains whether this mechanism will convince markets …

Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced Friday (April 9th) that Bulgaria will give up its eurozone application for the time being due to its current inability to meet the European Monetary Union criteria. Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov said that the country will voluntarily revise its 2008 and 2009 budget deficits. The …

The European Commission (EC) will not send a special mission to monitor the upcoming local election in Montenegro, the head of the EC delegation in Podgorica, Leopold Maurer, said on Friday (April 9th). The comment came after a request of the opposition Movement for Changes (PzP), which earlier asked the …

Slovakia will not change its stand on recognition of Kosovo, Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčak has told Kosovo Albanian officials. “We will not recognize it (Kosovo) and this remains our stand,” Lajčak said after a meeting with Skender Hyseni, appointed by the government in Priština as its foreign minister, late …

Bosnia will not get on the white Schengen list in July, experts of the EU and Bosnia working on the visa regime liberalization have agreed. Tanja Fajon, European Parliament rapporteur on visa liberalization in the Western Balkans, confirmed that visa liberalization is