Balkans

The EU foreign ministers yesterday extended the mandates of most special representatives worldwide, including Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) Valentin Inzko. His was due to expire next week. The EU justice and interior ministers are expected to extend Pieter Feith’s mandate as EU special representative to Kosovo by another six months …

Macedonian government will remain completely constructive in solving name dispute and we believe that UN mediator’s visit will move forward name talks. Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski made the remarks on the eve of today’s meeting with Matthew Nimetz, who arrived in Macedonia this afternoon. Gruevski said that Macedonian top officials are …

The EU has expressed its appreciation to Montenegro for the stabilising role it has played in the Western Balkans. During a two-day visit by Podgorica’s chief diplomat Milan Rocen, the Spanish EU presidency expressed hopes that Montenegro’s Stabilisation and Association Agreement will come into force at the Stabilisation and Association …

Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčak said that EU representative in Kosovo Pieter Feith can continue to represent the EU in Kosovo.

UN special envoy on the name dispute between Macedonia and Greece, Matthew Nimetz, arrived in Macedonia on Tuesday for a new round of consultations with the country’s top officials. “I expect a lot,” mediator Nimetz said, adding that he is doing his outmost to help resolution of the dispute. Mediator …

Bulgaria can join the Euro area in 2013. This is what President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek said after the meeting with the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. Expectedly the economic crisis was among the issues discussed during the meeting between the Bulgarian President and the President of the EP. …

A Council of Europe, CoE, delegation that intervened to solve Albania’s ongoing political crisis urged on Tuesday the country’s opposition and the government majority to end the stalemate.

The European Commission adopted Monday a proposal to prolong the exceptional autonomous trade preferences which the European Union grants to Western Balkan countries until 2015, the Commission’s press service informs. The aim of this proposal is to ensure that Western Balkan economies continue to benefit from an unlimited duty free …

The conference, organised by the Dutch government and the Sanela Diana Jenkins Human Rights Project at University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, aims to open the floor to different actors to talk about the Tribunal’s achievements in promoting rule of law, peace and justice in the former Yugoslavia, …

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said that the most contentious points in Serbian-Croatian relations are a border issue and problems related to the wartime and post-war period. Josipovic, said that the border problem with Serbia was not as big as the one with Slovenia and that it would be easier to …