Balkans

The Swedish EU presidency presumes the Republic of Moldova may be admitted to the European Union even before Western Balkan states, Moldova’s Acting President, Parliament Chairman Mihai Ghimpu stated to the press after his meeting with the First Deputy Speaker of the Riksdag parliament] of Sweden, Jan Bjorkman.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen will visit Belgrade on December 16. The Netherlands is opposed to the implementation of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) between Serbia and the European Union before the remaining two Hague fugitives have been extradited.

In democratic countries, the political debate rolls out in parliament, and therefore it is necessary that opposition parties in Albania end the boycott of parliament, senior EU official said. Pierre Mirel, European Commission Director the Western Balkans, made the remarks in Tirana on Tuesday.

Albania’s Foreign Minister and Deputy PM Ilir Meta will pay 2-day visit to Kosovo. Meta, who was invited by his Kosovo counterpart Skender Hiseni, is scheduled to meet top officials of Kosovo and Serbian representatives. Media pointed out that Kosovo officials will discuss about Tirana’s lobbing for continuing the process …

The former UN Deputy Special Envoy for Kosovo, Ambassador Albert Rohan believes that Pristina’s future is in the European family, and warns that there might be some difficulties regarding UN membership.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Rumyana Zheleva, who is on a 3-day visit to Washington, was received yesterday by Richard Morningstar, the US Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy, and Jonathan Elkind from the United States Department of Energy. 

If the government of the former Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev has been loyal ad honest then the European Union should immediately return the blocked money. This is what leader of Order, Law and Justice (OLJ) Yane Yanev said at a briefing in the Parliament.

Greek government will table December in the Parliament the final draft bill on Burgas–Alexandroupoli pipeline. Despite the expressed reserves over the benefits of the agreement and the complicated problems on environment, which the passing of the pipeline through Greek territory could bring, it seems that at practice the last stage …

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 …