Balkans

European Parliament elections will be held on June 7 in Bulgaria, President Georgi Parvanov announced Thursday. The European Union has been officially notified of this date for Bulgaria’s MEP elections and has given it the green light, Parvanov stated. Parvanov urged Bulgaria’s MPs to move quickly to decide on all …

The European Commission has decided to redefine the terms “Macedonian”, “Macedonians” and country code “MK” in its institutional style guide, Erik Meijer, European Parliament Rapporteur for Macedonia, suspects. According to information obtained by Eric Meijer, these terms now in common use are to be replaced with the designation “to be …

The strongest Bosnian Croat parties, the Croat Democratic Union, HDZ, and the renegade HDZ1990, inch towards reunification, with HDZ 1990 leadership expected to start discussing this issue on Thursday. “One person cannot decide on the modalities of unification… party organs are the ones to take key decisions,” local media reported …

Several Serbian local officials warned the Serbian Government that its economy measures could lead to the bankruptcy of many municipalities in Serbia. The government had earlier announced a possible decrease of the cash to be transferred from the Republic’s budget to local budgets. Local officials are mostly worried about the …

The government’s policy aimed at boosting the country’s population growth by giving cash bonuses to mothers with more than one child has crumbled before the Constitutional Court, on the grounds that it is discriminatory. The court ruled on Wednesday that the government’s provisions in the child protection law, envisaging state …

Kosovo’s deputies have not stopped smoking in Kosovo’s Parliament, setting an example of how to breach the law. Although smoking in offices and institutions, including Kosovo’s Parliament, has been banned for three years, three deputies of the Parliamentary Commission for Budget and Finance have been spotted smoking in one of …

Serbia ranks as the 11th worst country in the world at dealing with construction permits for business, according to a recent World Bank report. The country’s protracted legal procedures for constructing industrial sites have become even lengthier, according to the World Bank’s 2009 ‘Doing Business’ report. The annual comparative study …

The walkout will be the second nationwide protest against the conservative government since the police shooting of a teenager in December. Flights to and from Greece will be grounded for several hours on Thursday and banks, schools and transport will shut down during a one-day nationwide strike in protest against …

Tuerk said for Al Jazeera that the European Commission mediation is a good offer, if Croatia accepts it seriously. With the help of the European Commission and its mediation in the Slovenian-Croatian border dispute, that issue “could technically be solved in a few months”, evaluated on Tuesday the Slovenian president …

Krusevo barber, Slavko Kalevski, says he has had much happier times working in his salon in this remote Macedonian mountain town since he banned discussions about politics in the shop. A large sign saying “no talking politics inside” hanging on the door greets his customers, warning them to leave their …