Eurasia

The European Commission is expected to announce on Wednesday whether it will target Bulgaria with an excessive deficit procedure for exceeding the ceiling of 3% of GDP as it issues its report on euro hopefuls. The Commission will say whether Bulgaria, Denmark, Luxembourg and Finland are in breach of the …

Republika Srpska (RS) Prime Minister Milorad Dodik told High Representative Valentin Inzko on Tuesday (May 11th) that his entity is willing to resolve state and military property issues but others are not. At a meeting in Banja Luka, Dodik also said that while RS is ready to comply with December’s …

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said that he believes the trial of Dragan Vasiljkovic, who was arrested in Australia yesterday, will be fair. “I do believe that today in Croatia everybody can expect a fair trial. As in any legal system, we have all that is needed to monitor the quality …

Croatia’s Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic is optimistic that Croatia will open the judiciary chapter of its EU accession negotiations in June, and will be able to wrap up talks by the end of the year. In an interview with Europolitics Tuesday (May 11th), Simonovic said that

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele expressed concern again Tuesday (May 11th) about the political stalemate in Albania that he says is hampering the EU integration process. A ten-day hunger strike by the opposition is complicating the situation, he noted. Spain, current holder of the rotating EU presidency, is urging politicians …

EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said on Tuesday (May 11th) that Kosovo must do two things — implement re-admission agreements and integrate returnees — before the EU can even consider initiating a dialogue on visa liberalisation. “It is important that Kosovo too understands and knows the conditions,” Fuele said, adding …

Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni has asked Belgrade to provide facts about mass graves dating from the 1998-1999 conflict. “Serbia is responsible to make mass grave sites containing Albanian bodies public,” Hyseni was quoted as saying on Tuesday (May 11th). The latest one, believed to contain the bodies of 250 Kosovo …

Bulgaria is ready to offer Bosnia and Herzegovina practical help for the implementation of its NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), Foreign Minister Mladenov stated. Mladenov met in Sarajevo with his Bosnian counterpart, Sven Alkalaj, as part of his Western Balkans diplomatic tour.

Germany’s government says it will keep up to 2,500 troops in Kosovo for at least another year as part of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission. Government spokesman Christoph Steegmans said the Cabinet approved extending the mandate while also cutting the maximum number of soldiers by 1,000 from 3,000. He says Germany …

Kosovo Albanian government’s Foreign Minister Skender Hyseni says Priština is ready to participate in the Western Balkans-EU conference in Sarajevo. But Kosovo Albanian officials, he explained, wish to have an “equal status”.