Vice President Joe Biden heads to eastern Europe Tuesday to meet key US allies, after a decision last month to shelve a Bush-era missile shield initially angered Poland and the Czech Republic. Officials deny that Biden is being sent on a mission to pacify the two US partners, on a …

Processing of applications for Bulgarian citizenship filed by ethnic Bulgarians living abroad has improved considerably, Bozhidar Dimitrov, Minister without Portfolio responsible for Bulgarians abroad, told Bulgarian-language Trud daily on October 19 2009. In just one month, the speed at which the Citizenship Council at the Justice Ministry worked had tripled, …

Representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are to arrive Tuesday on a visit to Belgrade. On the eve of the visit, Serbian media commented that examining the statements made by representatives of the mission, one may draw the conclusion that there is increasing suspicion in Serbian government’s success in …

President of the Hellenic Republic Karolos Papoulias has accepted the proposal by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to serve a second term in Greece’s highest post, as it was formally announced on Monday afternoon.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is currently holding a one-on-one discussion with his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadic. The Russian leader landed at Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla Airport at around 11am and was transported directly to Serbia Palace where he was welcomed with full state and military honours.

Representatives of all three of Bosnia’s main ethnic groups have essentially rejected the package of demands and incentives proposed by senior EU and US officials ahead of Tuesday’s resumption of negotiations. Local, EU and US officials have reconvened today at the Butmir military base near Sarajevo to discuss the package, …

The Hague Prosecution has submitted its plan for the presentation of evidence in the trial of Radovan Karadzic, from which certain crimes have been removed. As per an order of the Hague Tribunal Chamber, the Prosecution has filed “a revised indictment” against Radovan Karadzic, which contains the counts that will …

A European Parliament, EP, committee supports the call of special rapporteur for visa issues, MEP Tanja Fajon, for the acceleration of visa liberalisation for Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, once the two countries meet established criteria. Members of the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs also supported Fajon’s …

Macedonia’s border agreement with Kosovo is a classic example of an exchange of territories made in murky conditions and outside the law, Macedonia’s opposition parties allege. The neighbouring states announced on Sunday that they had closed their long-standing border issue. Macedonia’s parliament ratified the agreement on Saturday with a simple …

The opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, would back any government compromise in the Athens-Skopje name row that guarantees that the language and nation would remain unchanged and referred to as Macedonian. “Whatever is acceptable to you will be acceptable to us.” SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski told Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski at …