Eurasia

The candidacy of Bulgarian Commissioner-designate Rumiana Jeleva has been withdrawn according to the European People’s Party Group in the European Parliament. A letter was sent to Joseph Daul this morning by Rumiana Jeleva. Jeleva has resigned from her position as Commissioner-designate and her position as Foreign Minister.

The Turkish Cypriot political leadership’s recent proposals on solving the Cyprus issue was unacceptable, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said Monday. “We want a solution that will end occupation and division in Cyprus, because the Cyprus issue is primarily a problem of occupation by Turkey,” Papandreou said after meeting with …

Macedonia’s President Georgi Ivanov has promised to push for a solution to his country’s long-running name dispute this year, but not at the price of ‘putting identity onto the negotiating table’. “It is regretful that due to an irrational reason, an imposed dispute, generations of Macedonian citizens are hindered on …

Head of the European Commission Delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert spoke about the genocide suits filed by Serbia and Croatia. “It is up to every country individually to see how it wants to lead this process. We will encourage both countries to talk about that question, to establish dialogue again,” …

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said on Monday that 2009 was a tough year for global economy, though there were a few good moments for Macedonia. “2009 left deep scars and we want these scars healed as soon as possible. We want to put these scars behind, but we have to …

Slovenian EP reporter on Macedonia Zoran Taler have filed several amendments to the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs in Brussels. Taler seeks from the EU Council of Ministers set a date for accession talks with Macedonia in March 2010. The European Parliamentarians will discuss Taler’s amendments on January 26.

OSCE observers have said that the election laws of Ukraine must be improved and brought in line with the international norms and standards, Heidi Tagliavini, the head of the election observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, has said. “We would like to note that …

The Georgian conservatives offer to debate over normalization of the Georgian-Russian relations. They invite to discussion all the interested, including the government, opposition, church, civil society, business representatives and citizens, Georgian Conservative Party leader Zviad Dzidziguri said today.

No reshuffles will be made in the Macedonian government at least not in the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), said the leader of the party Ali Ahmeti. Ahmeti noted the party is concentrated over the resolution of the name issue and this is its main priority for now. According to …

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said that he expects to have “good inter-state relations” with Serbia soon. He said that Kosovo wants these relations to be between “two independent and sovereign states.” “Kosovo is an independent and democratic state and I expect Belgrade to work to build good inter-state relations …