Balkans

Kosovo officials say their country has gained enough votes to join the International Monetary Fund, IMF, an important step in the country’s efforts to secure both global recognition and international aid. Kosovo’s government has said that a vote at the body by more than half the IMF’s member states had …

Opposition parties and independent economists have panned Tirana’s centre-right government for acting ”irresponsibly” by accepting what they say is an exorbitantly high interest rate on a commercial loan to finance the Albania-Kosovo highway. “The government has indebted its citizens in order to finance its pre-electoral spending,” former Minister of Finance …

Current proposal of European Union expansion commissioner Olli Rehn is acceptable in principle, but Slovenia will provide its amendments to it, so that it is more balanced, said the spokesperson of Slovene Foreign Affairs Ministry Milan Balazic on Wednesday. Talking at a press conference a few hours before Slovene PM …

ZAGREB, Croatia The government will accept EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn’s latest proposal on resolving the border conflict with Slovenia, leaders decided during a high-level meeting Tuesday (May 5th). Rehn suggests that a five-member panel of arbitrators decide the issue.

PRISTINA, Kosovo The leader of Kosovo’s Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) movement, Albin Kurti, was held briefly at the Blace border point between Kosovo and Macedonia late Tuesday (May 5th).

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) The Appeals Chamber at the BiH court on Tuesday (May 5th) ruled that Mirko Pekez and Milorad Savic should spend 14 and 21 years in prison, respectively, for war crimes against Bosniak civilians in 1992. It found them guilty of killing 23 Bosniaks — most …

The Prosecution at the International War Crimes Tribunal has confirmed that it destroyed some materials discovered in the graves of murdered Srebrenica residents. BIRN had earlier revealed that it had received some indications suggesting that the material, that may have provided evidence pertaining to their murder, was destroyed.

Pierre Mirel, Director of the European Commission’s Enlargement Unit for the Western Balkans will visit Belgrade on 11 May for talks, reports Danas. The paper highlights an expected meeting with Serbia’s interior minister Ivica Dacic, in which Mirel is expected to have talks about the Commission’s upcoming report on Serbia’s …

Fifteen US Congressmen have sent a letter to the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton calling for a speedy and just resolution of the long running name row between Athens and Skopje. The congressmen urge the US administration to review Macedonia’s role in contributing to the stability in the southern …

Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, has urged Kosovo citizens, particularly ethnic Serbs, to return to Kosovo. Along with the Minister for Return and Communities in Kosovo’s government, Sasa Rasic, Thaci invited Serbs to return to Kosovo and re-start their lives in the “Kosovar system of living”. “The government of the …