Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini is chairing the 12th Council of Ministers of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, AII, which began in Ancona, Italy on Wednesday. The Council, which brings together the foreign ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Italy, is aimed at preparing an EU …

Members of the European Parliament meeting in Brussels with their Albanian counterparts did not succeed in attempts to help find a compromise between representatives of the Albanian ruling and opposition parties. The two sides notably failed to produce a final declaration, which is generally issued at such meetings.

The European Commission today proposed the conclusion of visa facilitation and readmission agreements with Georgia. The draft agreements result from recent negotiations between the EU and Georgia. They aim at enhancing EU-Georgia relations by facilitating short-stay travel of Georgian citizens to the EU while jointly tackling risks of irregular migration. …

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov, who has underlined the Western Balkans’ place in his country’s foreign policy priorities, has started a tour of the region that from May 5 to 14 2010 will take him to Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania. Mladenov, Foreign Minister in the …

Direct dialogue between Macedonia and Greece is the best way of overcoming the long lasting bilateral “name” dispute, visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told media in Skopje. “Direct dialogue between the two parties is the best way to resolve the issue. Both Greece and Macedonia are stable and they …

Pristina and Belgrade may begin talks on decentralisation, cultural heritage and the northern part of Kosovo later this year. The possibility that talks will be held has increased after several EU and US officials visited Kosovo and Serbia. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini also said indirectly in Pristina that Kosovo …

The legal form of the joint statement on the establishment of a strategic partnership for Moldova’s European integration signed by the Acting President of Moldova Mihai Ghimpu and the Romania President Traian Basescu in Bucharest on April 27 suits the leaders of the Alliance for European Integration (AEI). The reason …

The Serbian Parliament Collegium will discuss a draft declaration condemning crimes against Serbs, it has been announced. These crimes were committed during the 1990s wars in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo during the NATO bombing. Parliament Speaker Slavica Đukić-Dejanović distributed the draft to MPs, which will be discussed on Wednesday. The …

Progress made in talks to reunify the divided island will not be lost, UN envoy Alexander Downer said on Monday (May 3rd) after his first meeting with newly elected Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu. According to Downer, Eroglu, who won the April 18th elections in the north, promised to continue …

Head of EU delegation to Serbia Vincent Degert says the country made significant steps on the EU pathway in 2009. Speaking in Niš, southern Serbia, on Tuesday, he added that there is yet more work to be done for its EU accession. Degert pointed out that the decision on visa …