Balkans

Albania’s general election appeared headed for deadlock on Wednesday, with both the governing right-of-centre Democratic party and the opposition Socialists unable to win an outright majority in the 140-seat parliament. A long drawn-out counting process after Sunday’s vote went into its fourth day on Wednesday amid mounting tension over possible …

Ivo Sanader, the Croatian Prime Minister has called a press conference, currently underway, without offering any advance agenda. At the conference he announced his resignation and said that he was leaving politics for good. The main state television station, HTV reports that an unscheduled HDZ parliamentary association meeting was held …

Political deadlock and stalled reforms have forced the international community to postpone its decision to close the Office of the High Representative, OHR, media reported on Wednesday. “Today we have not made the decision about the closure of the OHR, or about the transition of the OHR,” Bosnia’s High Representative, …

With only a hundred ballot boxes still left to be counted, the right-of-centre coalition led by the Democratic Party of Prime Minister Sali Berisha was running neck-and-neck with the opposition Socialists led by Tirana Mayor Edi Rama on Wednesday in Albania’s tightly fought parliamentary election. The process of counting the …

Macedonian opposition parties said the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Bocevski was a sign of the government’s inability to make progress with its European Union accession bid. Bocevski, in charge of EU relations, revealed no motives for his surprise move in his resignation letter sent on Tuesday to the …

Kosovo must pay a $231 million debt to the World Bank for loans obtained during the Yugoslav period, announced James Steinbery, US deputy secretary of state, on Tuesday. The debt, which was initially calculated to be $381 million, will be lowered by $150 million, which will be paid by the …

Former Prime Minister Agim Ceku returned to Kosovo on Tuesday after being stopped by Bulgarian authorities due to a warrant for his arrest issued by Serbia. A Court in Kyustendil in Bulgaria has dismissed the charges in the arrest warrant against the leader of Kosovo’s Social Democratic Party, PSD, the …

Just weeks before the European Commission is due to publish an assessment on Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the EU, the French Senate cautioned against “stigmatising” the EU’s most recent members and suggested fine-tuning the Union’s Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, set up to assist the two countries after their entry. …

EU officials in Brussels admit Sunday’s crucial parliamentary elections in Albania demonstrated electoral progress, but warn that more needs to be done before the country can be said to have achieved full international standards. EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has noted in a statement that “tangible progress has been made …

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen is scheduled to visit Serbia in July to discuss trade cooperation between the two countries, but the visit will not change the Netherland’s against Serbia’s Stabilization and Association Agreement, SAA. A Dutch Foreign Ministry statement said that Verhagen would discuss with his Serbian counterpart Vuk …