Balkans

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will arrive on a two-day official visit in Podgorica, today. The Montenegrin nomination for entering the NATO Membership Action Plan is expected to be discussed in Brussels on December 3-4.

Serbian paramilitary commanders, Milorad Ulemek and Zvezdan Jovanovic have each been sentenced to 40-years in prison for assassinating the country’s Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, after the Supreme Court rejected all of the defense’s appeals. Ulemek is sentenced to 40 years in jail for joining a criminal enterprise and for unconstitutional …

Bulgaria’s Nationalist VMRO party claims bilingual inscriptions on the countyr’s international passports are a sign of low self-esteem and colonial mentality. 

Bosnian leaders are pondering a revised package of constitutional changes offered to them by European Union and US negotiators, in their latest attempt to help end country’s political deadlock. The Western negotiating team met Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Croat leaders in Sarajevo on Tuesday, and is meeting Bosnian Serb officials …

Reaffirming its commitment to enlargement, the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has called for the immediate implementation of an interim trade agreement between Serbia and the EU. “The (EU) Council should ratify the Interim Agreement without delay,” says a draft resolution of the Foreign Affairs Committee, citing the fact that …

Uporne opstrukcije koje dolaze od nekih političara iz reda srpskog naroda doprinijele su odgađanju provedbe ključnih reformi, naveo je Valentin Incko, visoki predstavnik, u izvještaju o stanju u BiH koji je jučer podnio Vijeću sigurnosti UN-a. Predsjedavajući Vijeća ministara BiH Nikola Špirić u svom obraćanju kazao je kako RS može …

The Kosovo assembly will hold a ceremonial session today to welcome former deputy UN special envoy in the Kosovo status talks Albert Rohan. According to the announcements, Rohan will also address the assembly.

“There cannot be a start of EU accession negotiations without a prior resolution of the name issue,” Greek Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said. Droutsas’ remarks appear on the Greek foreign ministry’s website. “It is in the hands of the FYROM government and Mr. Gruevski himself to abandon their intransigent …

Slovenian Interior Minister Katarina Kresal said on Tuesday that Slovenia wants Macedonia to join the European Union as soon as possible and her country will support Macedonia’s EU entry bid. Visiting Slovenian Minister Kristina Kresal and Macedonian Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska signed a grant agreement on behalf of their countries. …

Albanian President Bamir Topi expressed willingness to help his country overcome the political crisis. Commenting the protest rallies staged by opposition Socialist Party, President Topi said he was ready to broker the talks between the opposition and the government in order to bridge the impasse, but he stressed that consent …