Balkans

As a row between Slovenia and Croatia heats up, the European Union has cancelled the next round of accession negotiations with Croatia planned for Friday, giving no new date talks. EU officials said no progress had been made towards brokering a deal between Croatia and its EU-member neighbor Slovenia. Despite …

Bosnia’s state court on Tuesday refused to extradite a powerful Croatian parliamentary deputy who fled to Bosnia to avoid going to jail for war crimes. Branimir Glavas was the first senior Croatian official to be convicted of war crimes against Serbs during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the …

Serbia plans to ship thousands of kilograms of spent nuclear fuel to Russia as it seeks to avert security threats and decommission a research reactor, a government official said on Tuesday. The Vinca Nuclear Institute, 17 km (11 miles) southeast of Belgrade, will ship 2.5 tonnes of spent fuel rods …

BRUSSELS, Belgium Sweden, which takes over the rotating EU presidency on July 1st, does not plan to intervene in the border dispute between Croatia and Slovenia, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in Brussels on Monday (June 22nd).

GENEVA, Switzerland The latest UN-mediated round of talks between Macedonia and Greece on their name dispute ended Monday (June 22nd) in Geneva without progress, media reported.

TIRANA, Albania Sweden, which assumes the rotating EU presidency on July 1st, urged the European Commission on Monday (June 22nd) to offer an opinion on Albania’s application for EU candidate status during the second half of the year.

ATHENS, Greece Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis expressed concern Monday (June 22nd) about the growing number of violations in Greek air space over the Aegean Sea by Turkish military aircrafts. These incidents threaten to significantly raise tensions in bilateral relations, she warned.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Former Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik arrived in Pale on Monday (June 22nd) to see his family. The Hague war crimes tribunal granted him three days to visit his ill mother. In March, Krajisnik was sentenced to 20 years in prison for war crimes committed …

The recent visit of Serbian President Boris Tadic to Banja Luka, the seat of the Bosnian Serb leadership, continues to draw strong criticism from other Bosnian leaders. “Tadic is reneging on the Dayton agreement,” leader of the strongest Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) Party of Democratic Action, SDA, Sulejman Tihic, said in …

The EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo has condemned the use of roadblocks by local Serbs, who are attempting to stop EULEX custom officers from working in the north of the country. Roadblocks were erected on Monday and Tuesday on the roads leading to Gates 1 and 31 in northern Kosovo, …