Balkans

Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić said Thursday that Serbia has “never moved faster towards the EU than in 2009”. Speaking during a humanitarian New Year’s reception organized by the Foreign Ministry, he reiterated that EU membership was one of the Serbian government’s priorities.

In the first minutes of December 19 2009, 50 citizens of Serbia will be the first to travel to the European Union without visas in their passports in a flight from Belgrade to Brussels. This group of Serbian citizens, who were selected through the “Europe for everyone” open competition and …

Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini says the time has come for Serbia to submit its application for European Union membership. Frattini said that Serbia should submit its candidacy appplication with the EU “before Christmas.”

As the scrapping of visas for citizens traveling to the European Union is set to become official on Friday at midnight, Macedonians celebrate with a massive party in Skopje’s main square and a state lottery for a free trip to Paris. Friday night has been declared a “white night,” meaning …

Macedonian President Gjorgje Ivanov met briefly with Greek PM George Papandreou in Copenhagen on the sidelines of the Climate Change Summit. Ivanov said that the visa liberalization will bring to a better cooperation between the two countries. Macedonian President hopes that Greece will surpass the position of blockades.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Macedonia and Iceland are expected to start accession negotiations with EU in 2010. The German Chancellor urged parliamentarians to discuss subjects, which are of great

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic announced that negotiations with Russia over some USD 200 million credit needed for the budget deficit have been finalized.

The District Court in Priština released three Serbs from the municipality of Novo Brdo from custody on Wednesday. Slobodan and Srećko Martinović and Svetlana Stojanović were arrested on September 24 and accused of committing war crimes. The charges against them state that the three “from April 17 until April 22, …

Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandr Konuzin was in Kosovo on Wednesday, in the northern, Serb-dominated part of the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. Beta news agency reports that he stated that the Russian Federation and Serbia had good political and economic cooperation, but that it was necessary to expand it …

Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović was on Wednesday touring several villages in the province’s Kosovsko Pomoravlje district. As he met with the local Serbs, he said that those of them who participated in the recently held Kosovo Albanian government-organized local elections, which Belgrade rejected, “did not lose faith in Belgrade …