Balkans

Russians aged under 18 will get free tourist visas for Bulgaria when making group visits, the Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev was quoted as saying by Focus news agency on Thursday. Teachers accompanying the groups will also get a free visa provided there is one teacher for every 15 …

Slovenia vetoed Zagreb`s EU accession talks in December because of the border dispute, which goes back to the 1991. Slovenia’s foreign minister insisted on Wednesday that Slovenia and Croatia must agree on the basic goal of an EU mediation effort in their border conflict before Croatia can continue its EU …

Austrian diplomat is now all but certain to become the international community’s representative. An Austrian diplomat, Valentin Inzko, has been appointed to be the European Union Special Representative (EUSR) to Bosnia and Herzegovina after the United States government dropped its opposition. The appointment was made by EU member states in …

BELGRADE, March 12  – Serbia will need $2.0 billion from the International Monetary Fund for 2009 alone and a new three-year loan deal with the lender would mean a lot more money to maintain stability, the central bank governor said on Thursday. In a live interview with B92 radio, governor …

Croatia was behaving relatively well in the present global economic crisis, unlike some other countries in the region that have been hit hard, a senior official of the World Bank said on Wednesday. Shigeo Katsu, World Bank vice president for Europe and Central Asia, said that this was partly thanks …

BUCHAREST, Romania: Prosecutors say they have dropped criminal charges against former President Ion Iliescu for allegedly inciting miners to riot in clashes that left six people dead. The general prosecutor’s office made the announcement Wednesday. The charges related to violence in June 1990, when Iliescu was president.

Podgorica. Montenegro might apply for an International Monetary Fund /IMF/ loan provided that the country’s economic growth is between 2.5% and 0% in 2009, which is below the previous forecast of 5%, said Minister of Finance Igor Luksic. “We are nearing a very low economic growth of between 0% and …

Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, expressed his support for EU enlargement by the Western Balkans countries during a March 10 2009 visit to Macedonia. “You have a graduation ahead of you in the form of elections,” Topolanek said in …

The announcement by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton that president Barack Obama is to visit Turkey in the next month or so sparked indignation among Greek media and prompted the country’s main opposition party to attack prime minister Costas Karamanlis government’s foreign policy as “inept and irresolute”. On March …

The adoption of the euro is a secondary priority for Bulgaria to securing macroeconomic stability and a prudent fiscal policy, Finance Minister Petar Oresharski said in Brussels. In an interview with Bloomberg after a session of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin), Oresharski said that Bulgaria’s entry into the …