Balkans

Bulgaria’s President Georgi Parvanov is expected to confer for the first time with European Council President Herman Von Rompuy during the second day of his working visits to Belgium and Luxembourg.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has congratuled Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on his activeness for bolstering the EU. Barroso and Parvanov met in Brussels Tuesday night, after the Bulgarian President met with EP head Jerzy Buzek and EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy earlier in the day.

The Hague Tribunal President, Judge Patrick Robinson, said the appeal in Radovan Karadzic case would be completed by February 2014, and all other appeals in 2013.

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.