The European Commission recommendation that Macedonian citizens be allowed to enter Schengen countries visa-free from January 1 2010 has caused a drop in demand for Bulgarian passports, Skopje-based Dnevnik said on July 17 2009. Macedonia is being given the concession along with two other Western Balkans states, Serbia and Montenegro.

TIRANA Nearly a week after parliamentary elections, Albania’s governing Democratic Party began to assemble a coalition government on Saturday, even as the opposition Socialists decried the move as premature.

GENEVA European citizens will be able to find out what dangerous substances are emitted in their neighbourhoods under an environmental treaty to go into effect in 17 countries in October, the United Nations said on Friday.