Balkans

Steinberg: Kosovo and Serbia Should Discuss Pragmatic Issues

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 …

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Papandreou: Greece may use aid package

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 …

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Bulgaria gives up eurozone application for now

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 …

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EC will not monitor Montenegro’s local elections

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 …

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Slovakia won’t recognize Kosovo

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 …

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Austria to join South Stream

Russia’s Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko says Austria will join the Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline project in April. Russian news agencies are quoting Shmatko as saying Thursday that this would be the final deal before construction begins later this year.

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Tadić: War not threatening Bosnia

Serbian President Boris Tadić says that he and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg agreed that “information that Bosnia is threatened by war” was untrue. “This isn’t about any sort of war, the situation is being overdramatized, I don’t know to what end. The problems should be identified through a …

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