Eurasia

Prime Ministers of Macedonia and Greece – Nikola Gruevski and Georgios Papandreou, met on Thursday in Brussels. The two declared readiness to solve the long-burning name dispute in the frames of the process within the UN. They also discussed issues of mutual interest for the two countries.

European Union leaders gave Croatia the green light on Friday to join the bloc as they endorsed the closure of negotiations with Zagreb, a diplomat said. EU leaders meeting in Brussels adopted a declaration commending Croatia for its “intensive efforts, which have allowed accession negotiations to reach their final stage.”

Bulgaria will insist on joining the Schengen zone under the current conditions, and only then will consider complying with additional criteria, according to the country’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov. The Bulgarian PM has been firm any additional conditions must be the same for all EU countries. “Currently we have fulfilled …

Enlargement Commissioner tells PM in Brussels to speed up reforms and work on solving ‘name’ row with Greece. Macedonia’s new government has to continue making progress on necessary reforms, or it

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of Moldova, Eugen Carpov, said that “Chisinau stands for faster resumption of official negotiations on Transnistrian conflict settlement in the 5+2 format with no preconditions” at a briefing in Chisinau on Thursday on the Moscow 5+2 format consultations of June 21.

Serbian Human and Minority Rights Minister Milan Marković has said that elections for the Bosniak National Council will need to be held by the end of the year. “This is a national interest and a need of the Bosniak community and it would be best if this issue

Aleksander Mezyaev, who was on Slobodan Milošević and Vojislav Šešelj’s defense teams, will be Ratko Mladić’s defense counsel. Mezyaev has been interested in leading the defense team ever since Mladić was arrested in the village of Lazarevo.

Head of Priština’s team in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue Edita Tahiri said she expects several agreements will be reached in July. They would refer to freedom of movement, free trade, telecommunications, energy, cadastres and birth registers, said she. Tahiri said that Kosovo has made concessions during the dialogue. 

Republic of Srpska’s goal is significant autonomy up to the level of full independence within Bosnia, RS President Milorad Dodik said. He added that people of the Serb entity (RS) supported the idea.

Oliver Ivanović has confirmed that Serbia prepared a second, modified draft UN resolution meant to define a future probe of the Kosovo human organ trafficking. It represents Belgrade’s proposal to the UN Security Council