Balkans

Greek hints that it approves of the UN’s latest proposal “Republic of Northern Macedonia” as a compromise name for Macedonia has been met with a cold reception by the leadership in Skopje. Speaking at a Washington-held conference dedicated to United States policy towards the Balkans, the Greek Ambassador to the …

More than 2,000 tonnes of rubbish threatens to spill into Bosnia’s northwest town of Banja Luka, after a drop in water levels at a nearby hydropower dam damaged filter nets on the Vrbas river. “The (waste filter) nets are completely destroyed. We have only managed to fix them temporarily but …

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov has vetoed a disputed amendment to the electoral law that was approved by the Socialist-controlled parliament ahead of general elections in July. One day after the changes were approved by lawmakers, Parvanov warned an amendment raising the threshold for party alliances to enter parliament could create …

Serbia’s President Boris Tadic has announced a visit to Kosovo on Friday, Kosovo’s Public Television RTK reports. The announcement by Serbia’s head of state visit comes on the eve of Orthodox Easter and some 100,000 Kosovo Serbs are to take part in festivities in Kosovo. Until now there has been …

Albania’s leftist opposition boycotted parliament on Thursday accusing the government of stalling the distribution of new identification cards, a key requirement ahead of the June 28 general elections. Socialist Members of Parliament are threatening not to return to the assembly chamber if the government does not resolve the problem where …

Some 25 percent of Bulgaria’s citizens say they are ready to sell their vote ahead of parliamentary elections due in early July, a report by Open Society shows. The good news is that only 5 percent of them would cast their ballot for the bribing party, said Open Society Executive …

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kosovo has released a statement encouraging foreign investment in Kosovo, following the launch of a website by a private Norwegian company arguing against investment. “Don’t Invest in Kosovo” is the name of a web domain recently created by a Norwegian company in a campaign to …

While recession wreaked havoc in the world economy, Albania registered an eight percent growth in its Gross Domestic Product last year, according to the National Statistics Institute. However, few economists take seriously the data published by INSTAT, while others have even hinted that it might have been manipulated due to …

The Serbian government is expected to adopt a rebalancing of the 2009 budget at Thursday’s session. Even though it was stated on Wednesday that the budget proposal was adopted by the government’s chief councils, according to Belgrade’s B92 network, the Finance Ministry was working into the late hours of the …

Bosnia’s top western envoy has urged Bosnia’s Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim)-Croat dominated Federation to curb public spending in a bid to get urgent financial support from the International Monetary Fund, IMF. “The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina must bring its expenditures under control to ensure financial stability and meet IMF requirements. …