Balkans

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb voiced support for Albania’s visa liberalisation process with the EU during a meeting with Albanian counterpart Ilir Meta in Helsinki on Wednesday. Stubb said his country backs Tirana’s effort to progress towards European integration, but stressed that reforms should continue. Meta said the visit “marks the …

Serbian Minister for Kosovo and Metohija has said that in talks with Yves de Kermabon, the chief of the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, Kermabon indicated that the EU does not support the strategy for the north of Kosovo put forward by the ICO and the Kosovo government.

Serbian President Boris Tadic is set to meet with Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and her Slovenian counterpart, Borut Pahor in the town of Ptuj in Slovenia on Friday. According to the Slovenian press agency STA, the top officials are set to discuss a conference on the EU integration of …

The negotiators in the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece are in constant contact with UN mediator Matthew Nimetz, but they are waiting on his next move.

Italy will respect the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Kosovo, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has stated.

Serbian Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanović met on Wednesday in Belgrade with the UN mission in Kosovo chief, Lamberto Zannier. They talked about the situation in Serbia’s southern province, Tanjug said in its report.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has been invited to attend the meeting on Western Balkans future, which will take place in Slovenia on March 20. In the invitation, signed by the Prime Ministers of Slovenia and Croatia, who are organizers of this conference, address

The Belgian embassy in Belgrade has told politicians from South Serbia that it will deny all requests for asylum which have been submitted by Serbian nationals this year. According to Beta news agency, Riza Halimi, the only ethnic Albanian MP in Serbia’s parliament, said that he was informed on Tuesday …

The arrest of a former Bosnian wartime politician in London is convenient for Balkan nationalist rhetoric: It lends Serbia a boost of power in the eyes of the public and throws Bosnia’s ethno-nationalists another bone of contention to use ahead of elections, Anes Alic comments for ISN Security Watch. The …

British Ambassador in Belgrade Stephen Wordsworth said that Serbia could join the EU in seven or eight years. This would come “if it focuses all of its efforts on European integration and removes all the obstacles in its path,” he said.