Balkans

European Commission Vice President Jacques Barrot will unveil a report today in Luxembourg on the on the status of Western Balkan countries’ readiness for EU visa liberalisation at a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers. An official from the current Czech EU presidency told media that though the report …

USAID, says that the process of distributing new identity documents to voters ahead of June 28 elections is problematic. About 760,000 of Albania’s three million citizens do not have passports, and will be allowed to cast ballots in the upcoming elections only upon obtaining a new identity card. 

Macedonia’s top political parties – the ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE and the opposition Social-Democrats – have condemned Tuesday’s incident in Athens, Greece in which ultra-nationalists stormed the promotion of a Greek-Macedonian dictionary. The parties urged Athens and Brussels to condemn the incident and find the perpetrators. Macedonian government spokesman Sefket …

“It is always smart to unite against a common enemy, and that is Croatia who has border disputes with everyone. With Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Montenegro” said the head of the Slovenian National Party, Zmago Jelincic, in an interview for the Frankfurt “Vesti”, the Serbian Diaspora paper. He added …

ZAGREB, Croatia Croatia could join the EU no earlier than 2012, European Parliament (EP) rapporteur for Croatia, Hannes Swoboda, told the Vienna-based newspaper Die Presse on Tuesday (June 2nd). He added that this assumes the maritime border row with Slovenia is resolved soon. Slovenia has been blocking the opening and …

SKOPJE, Macedonia The government on Tuesday (June 2nd) rejected media reports suggesting Skopje may withdraw its recognition of Kosovo’s independence. “Recognition was a very delicate process, which went through all the necessary procedures, and in the end was endorsed with a resolution by parliament,” government Spokesperson Sherif Duraku said. Separately, …

TIRANA, Albania Albania has started implementing a visa regime for foreign visitors, media reported on Tuesday (June 2nd). Under the new regulations, the visitors will have to follow procedures similar to those Albanians must follow when travelling abroad. In order to obtain a visa, foreigners will have to book a …

Vidin. Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev visited Thursday the construction site of the second bridge over the Danube River between Bulgaria and Romania, FOCUS Radio-Vidin informs.

The European Commission’s mission to examine the state of Bulgaria’s judiciary and law enforcement will arrive in the week after June 15 2009, EC spokesperson Mark Gray was quoted as saying on June 3 by Bulgarian news agency BTA. Earlier, news agency Focus quoted Romanian newspaper Libera as reporting that …

A former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina has declined an invitation from Radovan Karadzic to appear as a witness in regard to an alleged immunity agreement between Karadzic and former US envoy Richard Holbrooke. Carl Bildt, the first High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina and current Swedish foreign minister, …