Macedonia’s government has decided to turn its liaison office in Pristina into embassy, Deputy Prime Minister Abdulakim Ademi said. The decision was reached at a government session late Wednesday. “This is the government’s final decision. At the same time the government initiated a procedure for appointing an ambassador to Pristina,” …

Radovan Karadzic has asked the Hague Tribunal to grant him the right to appeal the Tribunal’s decision ordering the appointment of a defence attorney to represent him. In a motion filed with the Tribunal, Karadzic said that the decision imposing a defence attorney on him was “of extreme importance” for …

The EU’s Enlargement Commissioner has appealed to Albania’s government and the opposition to find a solution to the current political stalemate and end the opposition’s month-long boycott of parliament. “It takes two to tango and I appeal to the opposition to end the parliamentary boycott which does not respect European …

If Macedonia fails to secure a date of its EU accession talks in December, DUI and SDSM won’t call for snap polls because they don’t want to harm the positive momentum that will last in the coming months. “Unless Prime Minister Gruevski comes up with a plan, SDSM is ready …

The Romanian Parliament on Wednesday adopted legislative amendments that will empower the acting government to draft and ratify laws, crucial to adopting a budget for 2010. Romania’s current political crisis, following the resignation of former Prime Minister Emic Boc last month, has left the country without a government that has …

The “name” row between neighboring Macedonia and Greece could be settled using the recent Croatia-Slovenia model, through international arbitration, Macedonia’s foreign minister Antonio Milososki said Wednesday.   Milososki made this remark after meeting Spanish members of the European Parliament, Francisco Jose Millan Mon and Jose Ignacio Salafranca, the Macedonian MIA …

Greece will support any possible agreement that aims to resolve the longstanding dispute on Cyprus, the Greek prime minister has said. Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is also in charge of the Greek Foreign Ministry, called on his European counterparts to work together on the Cyprus dispute in a statement …

Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu stated that “historical, legal and constitutional” arguments were on “Kosovo’s side” in the ICJ case. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has started proceedings to determine the legality of the February 2008 unilateral independence declaration by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, which Belgrade rejected as an illegal act …

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold talks in the first half of 2010 to prepare and agree a new intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the gas sector, the Russian Fuel and Energy Ministry’s press service reported. 

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called upon his Cabinet of Ministers to negotiate with the opposition. “This dialogue is necessary and useful,” he said at a state meeting today in the Kakheti region. “For example, few days ago we had a dialogue with the Christian-Democrats and they noticed a thing that …