TBILISI It would be a stretch to say Mikheil Saakashvili has been humbled. But almost a year after Georgia’s war with Russia, the flamboyant president, like his country, cuts a more modest figure. The five-day war dashed the former Soviet republic’s hopes of taking back control of the rebel regions …

Boyko Borissov, Bulgaria’s new prime minister, yesterday pledged to mend fences with the rest of the European Union by stepping up the fight against corruption. The European Commission last week criticised the outgoing government for failing to curb high-level corruption. It has been critical of the failure to bring to …

BELGRADE, Serbia Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said on Saturday (July 25th) he is optimistic that Serbia’s interim trade agreement with the EU — as part of the broader pre-membership agreement — would be unblocked by the beginning of 2010. In an interview with the newspaper Danas, Jeremic said talks on …