Balkans

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 …

Russians aged under 18 will get free tourist visas to Bulgaria when making group visits, Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev was quoted as saying by Focus news agency on March 12 2009. Teachers accompanying the groups will also get a free visa provided there is one teacher for every …

Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov is departing on March 12 for a two-day visit to Moldova, in accord with an official invitation from his Moldavian counterpart Vladimir Voronin, the press centre of the Presidency said on March 11 2009. Scheduled for the visit are discussions between the two leaders. Purvanov is …

Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko has been approved by all EU member countries to be the new EU Special Representative, EUSR, for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inzko now faces Russian scrutiny before he can also be appointed the new High Representative to the country. “The process is still ongoing,” Inzko told Balkan …

Soldiers of the EU’s peacekeeping mission, EUFOR, supported by NATO and local police, began to search a house of a close associate of the war-time Bosnian Serb commander and war-crimes suspect, Ratko Mladic, for material that would help reveal his whereabouts. Around 4:00 am on Thursday, some 60 EUFOR soldiers …