Eurasia

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called upon his Cabinet of Ministers to negotiate with the opposition. “This dialogue is necessary and useful,” he said at a state meeting today in the Kakheti region. “For example, few days ago we had a dialogue with the Christian-Democrats and they noticed a thing that …

At a session of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the European Parliament, which was attended by Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki, the Bulgarian MEP from the Group of the Socialists and Democrats in the EP Evgeni Kirilov raised the issue of the Bulgarian military cemeteries and monuments in Macedonia, …

Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović said that Montenegro and Serbia “need to step out of the shadow of Kosovo”. “Differing relations towards Kosovo hinder our relations today. We understand Serbia and we are sorry about the problem it finds itself in because of this. And we believe that we are …

Serbian President Boris Tadic supported on Tuesday Greek Prime Minister Geórgios Papandréou’s initiative for Western Balkan countries to join the EU by 2014. In Athens Tadic and Papandréou talked about Serbia’s European integration, visa liberalization, bilateral relations, situation in the region, and fight with crime.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has announced that Serbia will submit its EU candidacy request by the end of the year, with aim of joining the EU in five to seven years. In an interview for the European Parliament’s official website, Jeremic said that, according to the latest polls, 70 …

The ruling party’s Kurdish initiative heats up Parliament as the debate comes packed with plenty of criticism of the Justice and Development Party’s efforts and what many opposition leaders are calling intentionally bad timing. Tuesday was also the anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern …

The eighth round of international security consultations on the Caucasus will be held in Geneva today. A Georgian delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Giorgi Bokeria has already arrived in Geneva. Bokeria said the Georgian side will raise issues to resolve security problems and thwart future kidnappings. A major topics …

The President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek has issued a special address to the Bulgarian people on the occasion of the 20th year since November 10, 1989, coup that led to the collapse of the country’s communist regime. “There’s no freedom without solidarity,” said the President of the European …

Moldova has set up a national committee to implement an individual plan for partnership with NATO. The country’s acting president signed the decree, said Parliament Speaker Mihai Ghimpu. The president’s press service announced that Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Iurie Leanca has been appointed committee chairman.

The European Parliament is scheduled to give Wednesday the ‘green light’ on annulment of Schengen visas for Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro as of December 19, Slovenian MEP Tanja Fajon, who prepared the visa liberalization report for Western Balkan countries, said.