Balkans

Montenegro Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic has said that relations between Serbia and Montenegro are not satisfactory, but that there is scope for improving them. He told B92 he was ready to work on establishing a quality relationship, provided Belgrade displayed the same willingness. Djukanovic said cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro …

The European Commission as rejected a request by Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev to send European officials and diplomats to help the country’s state administration in its handling of EU funds. In a letter, obtained by the Dnevnik newspaper, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso told Stanishev that the new …

Deputies in Serbia’s Parliament will meet for the first time today in their new chamber, the renovated Hall of the National Parliament in Nikola Pasic Square. The chamber has been restored to its 1936 appearance. President of Parliament Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic said deputies would first take part in a series of …

Trade Minister Slobodan Milosavljevic told a B92 TV talk show last night that a new solidarity tax which has caused public uproar could be introduced but is “only one of the measures considered”. Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, in the presence of International Monetary Fund representatives, announced that the government had …

Kosovo’s Foreign Minister returned to Pristina optimistic about Kosovo’s future as an independent state, after attending meetings in New York and Prague. Skender Hyseni represented Kosovo at the UN Security Council and the meeting of EU foreign diplomats in Prague, insisting that the Kosovo delegation be split from the United …

The Albanian government has decided to further lower the cost of ID cards for different groups of the population, Minister of Interior Affairs Bujar Nishani said on Sunday. “The price for pensioners will drop from 500 lek to 300 lek (from €4.20 to €2.50), while for students the price will …

Romanian prosecutors on Monday indicted former economy minister Codrut Seres and former communications minister Zsolt Nagy for their involvement in “shady privatisation deals”. Four other persons, including a Czech and a Turkish citizen, were also indicted. Prosecutors say that, between May 2005 and November 2006, the defendants were part of …

Bulgaria’s Criminal Assets Forfeiture Commission on Tuesday imposed a ban on funds and property worth 828,000 leva (423,500 euro) owned by Alexander Tomov, a former deputy prime minister and now president of CSKA Sofia football club and executive director of Kremikovtzi steel plant. Tomov is under investigation for embezzlement while …

Romanian police have started an investigation in seven universities across the country, seizing graduation files that are suspected to have been forged, local press report. According to police officers, the graduation documents were compiled in several weeks, covering subjects such as economy, oil and gas engineering. Some universities now under …

Two moderately-strong earthquakes, just over 12 hours apart, have shaken Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The tremors caused widespread alarm but did little damage. The first tremor, at 15.27 on Monday, registered at 3.3 on the Richter scale and 5 on the Mercalli scale. The epicentre was some …