Balkans

Foreigners will be allowed to work as experts in Bulgaria’s state administration or councilors under new legislative changes, the prime minister said. Sergey Stanishev was speaking at a meeting with the ambassadors of EU member states, who were invited to hear more about the government’s idea to further cooperation between …

Bulgaria is one of three EU member states that registered the highest 12-month inflation averages up to February 2009, the European Union announced Monday. The lowest 12-month averages up to February 2009 were registered in the Netherlands and Portugal (both 2.2%) and Germany (2.4%), and the highest in Latvia (14.1%), …

Serbia’s Ministry of Labour and Welfare intends to relocate 62 Roma families, that are currently living in an illegal settlement under the Gazela bridge in Belgrade, to the southern Serbian town of Vranje – despite protests from Vranje’s local authorities. The notice from the Ministry to Vranje’s major – which …

Macedonia’s independent presidential candidate Ljube Boskoski claims that his supporters have received threats from the ruling conservative party VMRO DPMNE. Boskoski’s spokesperson Vesna Tasevska said on Monday that the candidate’s supporters who are employed in the public administration “receive threats for their jobs and even direct threats against their physical …

Bosnia’s new High Representative and EU Special Representative, Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko, said he is coming to the troubled country with “mixed feelings”, encouraged by strong international support but also aware of the “heavy burden” of the difficult task that lies ahead. Over the weekend, local and international officials greeted …

Kosovo’s border police have turned back eight Serbian parliament members trying to enter Kosovo on Monday because they did not notify Kosovo’s ministry of external affairs of their official visit. The eight delegates are members of the Parliamentary Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, and were on their way to visit …

One miner was killed and 14 others were injured over the weekend in an explosion of methane in a coal mine at Stranjani near central Bosnian town of Zenica. Two out of the 14 injured miners are in a critical condition with severe burns and Bosnian officials have been trying …

Serbia hopes to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, IMF, on a new stand by loan arrangement worth up to 3 billion euros by the end of this week. Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic on Monday stated that he expects talks with the IMF to end by late …

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded Croatia’s currency by one notch to BBB from BBB+, as financing from outside the country becomes increasingly difficult or expensive to come by. The rating agency also cited on Monday the country’s lack of fiscal policy flexibility due to its large public sector. …

The intergovernmental conference on Croatian EU accession needs to be postponed for the same reason, Zbogar believes. Slovene Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Zbogar said on Monday in Brussels that he does not expect an agreement to be achieved soon on mediation models for solving the outstanding Slovene-Croatian border dispute and …