Eurasia

European Union leaders have cleared the release of second bailout package for Greece by the end of the week. This is to enable Greece avoid a default on paying back €14.5 billion debts due on March 20. Finance ministers of the euro group, during a two-day

Bosnia’s war crimes prosecutors on Friday indicted five former members of a Croat paramilitary force for the torture of hundreds of Bosnian Serbs, most of them civilians, in the south of the country during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Bulgaria and Romania will spend further months in the waiting room to join the European Union’s Schengen visa zone after the Netherlands continued to insist that the two countries have not made sufficient progress against organised crime and corruption.

The governments of Bulgaria and Israel are going to hold a second joint sitting, the two countries’ Foreign Ministers Nikolay Mladenov and Avigdor Lieberman have made it clear. Mladenov explained in Sofia Friday that his meeting

New Bosnian Foreign Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija says European integration is more of a priority now that neighbouring Serbia has obtained candidate status. Serbia’s success this week in obtaining EU candidate status should encourage Bosnia to

EU leaders and Serbian ministers hailed the decision to grant Serbia candidate status, though Serbia’s main opposition leader said the achievement would mean little if the country remained under the same government. President Boris Tadic congratulated Serbia on obtaining EU candidate status late on Thursday night.

Bulgaria is withdrawing its ambassador from Belarus a day after Minsk ordered the ambassadors of Poland and the EU to leave the country, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov has announced. “After yesterday President Alexander Lukashenko kicked out

A two-day summit of EU leaders will begin in Brussels on Thursday and the final decision on Serbia’s EU candidate status is expected to be made tonight. According to a schedule, the EU leaders should discuss whether to grant Serbia the

Nikola Gruevski is set to meet Greek counterpart Lucas Papademos at the sidelines of the EU Summit in Brussels on Thursday. Over a month ago, PM Gruevski invited the Greek PM to dialogue. Papademos accepted the initiative

Estonia’s government will start discussions on whether the country should close its embassy in Bulgaria. The Estonian embassy in Sofia could be closed at the end of 2012. Estonia has reportedly analyzed the work of its diplomatic missions abroad, deciding to move its Ambassadors to several Balkan states to Tallinn.