Balkans

SKOPJE, Macedonia NATO will keep its doors open to countries in the Western Balkans, outgoing Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer pledged on Friday (May 8th) during a visit to Skopje.

WASHINGTON, United States The IMF announced on Friday (May 8th) it has approved Kosovo’s application for membership, confirming reports by Kosovo officials earlier in the week. The IMF’s executive board has certified an earlier vote by the Board of Governors to offer membership to Kosovo, the IMF said in a …

ATHENS, Greece At least 14 people were injured Saturday (May 9th) in clashes between police, neo-Nazi protesters and immigrants in Athens, media reported. Violence erupted after a group of about 300 members of the neo-Nazi group Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) gathered in central Athens for an anti-immigrant protest.

PRISTINA, Kosovo Interior Minister Zenun Pajaziti urged Interpol Friday (May 8th) not to implement Serbia’s arrest warrants for Kosovo’s citizens. He was referring to Colombia’s move Wednesday to expel former Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, who is wanted by Serbia for alleged war crimes.

BUCHAREST The preservation of military monuments and cemeteries in Bulgaria and Romania will be subject to a bilateral agreement between the two countries. Currently, the departments in charge harmonize the document, Bulgarian ambassador to Romania Valentin Radomirski said.

The European Union will unblock part of the frozen funds for Bulgaria at the beginning of next week, the German newspaper Die Welt reported on Sunday. The European Commission is expected to unfreeze the first tranche of EUR 115 M under ISPA programs for infrastructure projects, which aim to improve …

A powerful Croatian politician, who was sentenced by a Croatian court in the first instance to 10 years in prison for murdering Serbs during the 1992-95 wars, is hiding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, media in the region reported on Monday. After four years of complicated investigations and trials, a Zagreb …

Kosovo Police said that ten policemen were injured on Sunday as around 300 Serbs threw stones at them in protest to electricity cuts. The protests began at the eastern village of Gjilane/Gnjilane, when police say protesters gathered and blocked the Gjilane/Gnjilane-Bujanovac road. For the past three days several Serb inhabited …

Maritime law experts contacted by Balkan Insight have questioned the accuracy of local media reports of a land grab by Greece of Albanian territory, after the two neighbours signed an agreement to delineate the continental shelf in the Ionian Sea. The agreement signed by Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and …

The right-of-centre Macedonian Government is waging an “undeclared war against the Albanian option”, the head of the ethnic Albanian opposition said. Menduh Thaci, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, made the remarks at a session of DPA’s branch in the town of Debar, local Makfax news …