Balkans

The main opposition party in Greece has elected a former foreign minister and party rebel as its new leader, causing both concern and hope in neighboring Turkey. While giving a tacit support to Turkey’s EU membership bid, Antonis Samaras is also expected to purse hard-line foreign policy. The unexpected result …

The European Commission Mission in Serbia has changed its name to EU Delegation in Serbia. As the Lisbon Treaty came into effect on Tuesday, the EC mission in Serbia chief, Vincent Degert, became the chief of the EU delegation in Serbia. The treaty was signed on December 13, 2007 and …

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg is expected to meet today with political leaders in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The American embassy in Sarajevo confirmed this, and said that the talks will be dedicated to a recent

Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski will meet EC President Jose Manuel Barroso on Tuesday on occasion of EU decision for start of accession negotiations with Macedonia. Prime Minister urged his Greek counterpart George Papandreou not to block Macedonia’s road towards EU at EU Council’s session. The same appeal was sent yesterday …

A protest against changing Macedonia’s name, organized by the World Macedonian Congress, will be staged outside the EU Office in Skopje. One of the messages sent from the protest will be that Athens’s demands and pressure of the European bureaucracy

Albanian opposition staged protest rallies in front of the headquarters of OSCE Conference and OSCE foreign ministers. The late Tuesday’s rally brought together hundreds of Albanian toilers who submitted a protest note to OSCE conference, noting that June parliamentary elections were non-democratic.

The Western Balkans integration in EU will bring peace in Europe, while the war, used as a political weapon will disappear completely from the European ground, Croatia’s President Stjepan Mesic said on Tuesday. “The aggressors, who have caused war, were actually defending their minorities. The time, when Europe unites, that …

Bulgaria’s ambassador in Washington, Luchezar Petkov, had resigned, President Georgi Purvanov confirmed on Tuesday. Petkov’s resignation followed the announcement on 13 November that the ambassador in Ankara, Branimir Mladenov, has also resigned. Both have been at the centre of a stand-off between Boiko Borisov’s government and President Georgi Purvanov. Borisov …

Russian Minister of Energy Sergey Shmatko expects problems in the work with the Bulgarian government on Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline project. The Minister made this statement at a regular sitting of the State Duma (lower chamber of the Russian Parliament), while answering a question about perspectives on realization of Russia’s projects …

The International Court of Justice, ICJ, on Wednesday continued hearings into the legality of Kosovo’s controversial decision to break away from Serbia. Serbia, Kosovo and 29 UN member states, including the US and Russia, are over the next days unveiling their arguments to the Court. The hearings, which run until …