Eurasia

Montenegro is efficiently fulfilling its Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU and is quickly moving towards accession, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn says. Speaking in Brussels on Sunday after a meeting with Montenegrin Foreign Minister Milan Rocen, Rehn said Montenegro has strengthened its administrative capacity, implemented legal reforms and …

Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev has told the Reuters news agency that his party must win forthcoming parliamentary elections to stop the opposition implementing what he describes as “dangerous” economic plans. Stanishev said that Bulgaria did not need experiments with fiscal policy to deal with the global downturn as offered by …

Bulgaria’s economy will shrink by five per cent this year, London-based research firm Capital Economics suggests, as quoted by the Bloomberg news agency. In one of the bleakest forecasts about the Bulgarian economy since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, Capital Economics said exports and inbound investment flows will …

The European Commission is considering Belgrade’s proposal to set aside €120 milion from pre-accession funds to help maintain Serbia’s macroeconomic stability and the budget. That is according to EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. After a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic, Rehn highlighted that the European Union may start …

NICOSIA, Cyprus — EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has called on Turkey to help solve the issue of missing persons in Cyprus, local media reported on Friday (March 20th). Turkey is obliged under a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling to allow for an effective investigation into the fate …

BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Commission (EC) on Friday (March 20th) refuted the Bulgarian government’s claims for additional compensation for the decommissioned units of Bulgaria’s Kozloduy nuclear plant.

ATHENS, Greece — Greece and Albania have reached an agreement on the delimitation of their maritime space and continental shelf in the Ionian Sea, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said on Friday (March 20th). The two countries have successfully concluded negotiations and will soon sign the agreement, expected to help …

MOSCOW – Concerns over Russian-backed natural gas pipelines to Europe will not hurt construction because of Moscow’s commitment to the energy sector, officials said. Expanding the natural gas transit system in Europe received renewed focus following a disruptive gas row between Kiev and Moscow that left European customers without 20 …

Relations between Georgia and Azerbaijan are strengthening year by year, Georgian parliament speaker David Bakradze said. “Our interests are interdependent. Azerbaijan is a country with which Georgia will develop strategic and friendly relations,” he said, Novosti Azerbaijan reported.

Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili said the Turkish-proposed Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform has acquired no “clear shape” yet and consultations were on their “very early stage.” “We always welcome multilateral mechanisms,” Saakashvili said while speaking at a news conference on a sideline of a high-profile Brussels Forum late on March …