Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, expressed his support for EU enlargement by the Western Balkans countries during a March 10 2009 visit to Macedonia. “You have a graduation ahead of you in the form of elections,” Topolanek said in …

International Press Institute (IPI) director David Dadge met European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and other EC officials on March 9 2009 to call on the EC to make press freedom a priority in EU membership talks with Turkey. In a media statement, the IPI said that the appeal was made …

The announcement by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton that president Barack Obama is to visit Turkey in the next month or so sparked indignation among Greek media and prompted the country’s main opposition party to attack prime minister Costas Karamanlis government’s foreign policy as “inept and irresolute”. On March …

The adoption of the euro is a secondary priority for Bulgaria to securing macroeconomic stability and a prudent fiscal policy, Finance Minister Petar Oresharski said in Brussels. In an interview with Bloomberg after a session of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin), Oresharski said that Bulgaria’s entry into the …

Russians aged under 18 will get free tourist visas to Bulgaria when making group visits, Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedchiev was quoted as saying by Focus news agency on March 12 2009. Teachers accompanying the groups will also get a free visa provided there is one teacher for every …

Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov is departing on March 12 for a two-day visit to Moldova, in accord with an official invitation from his Moldavian counterpart Vladimir Voronin, the press centre of the Presidency said on March 11 2009. Scheduled for the visit are discussions between the two leaders. Purvanov is …

Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko has been approved by all EU member countries to be the new EU Special Representative, EUSR, for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Inzko now faces Russian scrutiny before he can also be appointed the new High Representative to the country. “The process is still ongoing,” Inzko told Balkan …

Soldiers of the EU’s peacekeeping mission, EUFOR, supported by NATO and local police, began to search a house of a close associate of the war-time Bosnian Serb commander and war-crimes suspect, Ratko Mladic, for material that would help reveal his whereabouts. Around 4:00 am on Thursday, some 60 EUFOR soldiers …

Serbia should start being truthful about its role in the Balkan wars of 1990s and adopt a formal strategy for dealing with victims and perpetrators, says a Council of Europe human rights report. The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg said on Wednesday during a visit to …

The Serbian minister of economy Mladjan Dinkic told a the press conference Wednesday that the export of arms from Serbia to Libya was halted by the Security Information Agency because of suspicions that the owner of the company that mediated the deal is on the UN’s black list. Dinkic said …