Balkans

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 …

ZAGREB – Croatia’s Prime Minister Ivo Sanader will visit Serbia on March 20 for the first time since his country’s recognition of Kosovo angered its Balkan neighbor. Relations between the two ex-Yugoslav republics improved in the past decade after the ethnic wars of the 1990s. But Serbia recalled its ambassador …

BELGRADE, Serbia – A Serbian court on Monday suspended the proceedings against a former university student wanted in the U.S. for allegedly beating an American classmate into a coma. A municipal court in Belgrade postponed the case against Miladin Kovacevic, 22, after it failed to persuade witnesses in the U.S. …

Traditional churches and religions communities, headed by the Serbian Orthodox Church [SPC], demand substantial changes to the bill on discrimination that would de facto have the act crucial in defining civic freedoms of marginalized social groups annulled. The Serbian Government has a commitment to its citizens, its legality and legitimacy …

The Republic of Kosovo chief diplomat, Skender Hyseni, met with the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, on Tuesday in Strasbourg whom he informed about the development and achievements in Kosovo since the declaration of independence last year. The Kosovar Foreign Minister Hyseni discussed with the President of the …

Pristina,  – European Union judges in a Kosovo appeals court cleared an Albanian man who had previously been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 2001 bombing of a Serbian bus, local reports said Friday. The appeals court ruled Thursday that the evidence against Florim Ejupi was insufficient for …

Ohrid, – There will be no devaluation in Macedonia. The country has sufficient reserves and thanking to the reforms, sound monetary, fiscal policy, stoically deals with the crisis, Vice-Premier Zoran Stavreski said Friday during his visit to Ohrid.

Sofia. For now National Movement for Stability and Progress /NMSP/ supports the existence of Bulgarian Energy Holding, but this is a temporary compromise, NMSP Deputy Chairman Milen Velchev answered to the question whether the party was in favor or against the existence of Bulgarian Energy Holding. Earlier on Monday at …

Sofia/Vilnius. President Georgi Parvanov is to pay a visit to Lithuania between March 16th and 18th 2009 at the invitation of President Valdas Adamkus. He is to meet with his Lithuanian counterpart, Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius and Seimas Speaker Arunas Valinskas.