Eurasia

SERBIA EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn says the EU Council of Ministers could soon take a decision on unfreezing the Interim Trade Agreement with Serbia. Speaking at a meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Rehn said that Serbia was one step away from a surefire place on the …

SERBIA Besides the protocol on police cooperation, EULEX has drafted two more agreements on cooperation with Serbia in customs and justice, says a Priština daily. Quoting unnamed sources, daily Koha Ditore writes that the protocols on cooperation in the fields of customs and justice are due to be signed by …

SERBIA The Supreme Court will continue to hear Milorad Ulemek and Zvezdan Jovanović’s appeal against their conviction for the murder of late PM Zoran Đinđić today. The public part of the trial began yesterday in a courtroom at the Belgrade District Prison with a statement by Judge Bata Cvetković (presiding) …

UKRAINE Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Thursday offered reassurances to Europe’s natural gas consumers, saying a recent agreement with the Kremlin on fuel deliveries had eliminated chances of another Russian gas blockade. ‘Ukraine and Russia are convinced, that this Christmas there will not be any of the traditional jokes, …

GEORGIA Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister, David Jalaganiya and Assistant to the Georgian honorary council in the Atlanta city, Scott Henwood held a meeting at the Georgian foreign Ministry. The meeting mulled cooperation between Georgia and the U.S state of Georgia, as well as the project on development of agrarian industry …

GEORGIA The next five-sided meeting on incident prevention will be held in the village of Ergneti in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone on September 3. The meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m., the head of the Analytical Department of the Georgian Interior Ministry, Shota Utiashvili, said. It is being held in …

ROMANIA Romania is currently in a deep recession that is expected to last into 2010, and even so, the nation’s economy is unlikely to return to its recent lofty growth rates in the near term, the long-term prospects remain good, according to a new Moody’s report on Romania, cited by …

NETHERLANDS The Dutch government has dealt another blow to the new EU member states Bulgaria and Romania, saying they are still doing too little to tackle corruption and organized crime, and their management of EU funds is still below par. The conclusions were announced on Wednesday in response to the …

BULGARIA Simeon Dyankov, Bulgaria’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, says that the flat income tax rate will stay unchanged, while Value-Added Tax (VAT) could be cut from the current 20 per cent to 18 per cent in 2010 and by a further two per cent by the end of …

BULGARIA Former government ministers will be indicted in the next few days, Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on September 3 2009. Tsvetanov declined to give names, saying that it was up to prosecutors to complete the indictments. Bulgarian news agency BTA reported Tsvetanov as telling …