Serbia

BELGRADE, Serbia The economic crisis will not affect Serbia’s EU accession process, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Bozidar Djelic said on Saturday (May 9th). While acknowledging that the financial crisis has an impact, he noted that several EU officials — including Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn — have made clear …

Serbs have ended weeks of protests in northern Kosovo after reaching an agreement with the UN Mission to the country, UNMIK, Serbian media report. According to Tanjug news agency, Serbs in the north of the divided town of Mitrovica stated that they reached an agreement with the international community representatives …

Up to twenty people were injured Sunday in clashes between Kosovo’s police and Serbs, sparked by electricity cuts. The protests began at the eastern village of Gjilan/Gnjilane, when police say protesters gathered and blocked the Gjilane/Gnjilane-Bujanovac road. Kosovo Police said that ten policemen were injured as around 300 Serbs threw …

PRISTINA, Kosovo Interior Minister Zenun Pajaziti urged Interpol Friday (May 8th) not to implement Serbia’s arrest warrants for Kosovo’s citizens. He was referring to Colombia’s move Wednesday to expel former Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku, who is wanted by Serbia for alleged war crimes.

The right-of-centre Macedonian Government is waging an “undeclared war against the Albanian option”, the head of the ethnic Albanian opposition said. Menduh Thaci, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, made the remarks at a session of DPA’s branch in the town of Debar, local Makfax news …

BELGRADE, Serbia Kosovo would have to assume the servicing of more than $1 billion in foreign debt if it gains admission to the IMF and the World Bank, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Mladjan Dinkic said Thursday (May 7th).

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik caused a new diplomatic and political scandal, by calling off ethnic Serb soldiers from NATO exercises in Georgia, local media reported on Friday. “Bosnia and Herzegovina has no reason to participate in this (exercise),” Dodik, who is Premier of the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika …

The prospect of Kosovo’s acceptance into the International Monetary Fund is raising some awkward questions in Serbia, and has precipitated debate within the country about the fate of the former province’s debt. The countries that made up the former Yugoslavia have divided up the debt, including IMF obligations, as well …

SKOPJE, Macedonia Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic arrived on Thursday (May 7th) for an official visit to Skopje, the first by a Serbian official since Macedonia recognised Kosovo’s independence and Belgrade recalled its ambassador to Skopje last October.

The President of Serbia Boris Tadic has called the decision of the International War Crimes Tribunal to triple Veselin Sljivancanin’s sentence ‘disappointing’. But at the same time, Tadic said the Tribunal’s decision should not be ‘brought into question’. In an interview with the daily Politika, Tadic said that questioning the …