July, 2009

• 15 July

  Bosnia: EU Visa Decision Major ‘Political Blunder’

  The European Commission’s Wednesday recommendation to grant a visa-free regime with the EU to Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, but not to Bosnia and Albania, has met strong criticism across the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe. Critics say the EU’s exclusion of Bosnia from the list sends a negative message to …

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• 15 July

  Macedonia Vows To Wrap Up EU Reforms

  Macedonia will soon wrap up its judiciary reforms to ensure a recommendation to begin EU accession talks, senior Macedonian officials said Wednesday. At a joint press conference, Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister in Charge of European AffairsVasko Naumovski and Justice Minister Mihajlo Manevski vowed to speed up reforms.

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• 15 July

  Bulgaria, Greece Sign Gas Pipeline Deal

  In a move designed to lessen Eastern Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, Bulgaria and Greece have signed an agreement for the construction of an alternative gas pipeline in the region. The agreement comes on the heels of a Nabucco pipeline deal signed in Turkey on Monday. The Bulgarian state-owned Energy …

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• 15 July

  EU Plans To Drop Visas For Three Balkan States

  The European Commission proposed on Wednesday letting citizens of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, which have been promised eventual EU membership, travel to the European Union without visas from Jan. 1. The EU executive said it hoped to make a similar proposal for Albania and Bosnia by the middle of next …

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• 15 July

  Bosnia-Herzegovina To Introduce Biometric Passport

  Bosnia-Herzegovina will start issuing out biometric passports from January 1, 2010 to all its citizens, despite the fact that they will still have to have visas for most travels abroad. Bosnia`s Prime Minister Nikola Spiric presented the new biometric passport at a press conference in Sarajevo on Wednesday. The new …

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• 15 July

  Medvedev, Sargsyan, Aliyev to meet over Karabakh

  MOSCOW The Presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Moscow on July 18 to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said on Wednesday. 

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• 15 July

  US Navy arrives in Georgia for exercises

  The American guided missile destroyer USS Stout has dropped anchor off the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi to take part naval training exercises with Georgian coastguards and Turkish ships. 

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• 15 July

  GERB’s memorandum to right-wing parties

  The Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) sees the formula of its government as a political project for the European development of Bulgaria which can be supported by the rest of the parties in the 41st Parliament in the name of Bulgaria’s national interests and in accordance with …

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• 15 July

  Bulgaria needs pro-European reformist majority: MEP Nadezhda Mihaylova

  SOFIA In times of crisis and when Europe’s trust in Bulgaria has been lost, the country needs pro-European reformist majority and not a one that legitimates the Euroskepticism. These are the words of Nadezhda Mihaylova, MEP of the Blue Coalition and former foreign minister of Bulgaria, said in Strasbourg, her …

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• 15 July

  Boiko Borissov to rule alone

  Boiko Borissov’s party will govern Bulgaria without bringing other parties into a ruling coalition, it emerged after the first round of talks between the country’s right-wing parties on July 15 2009. Borissov’s party, the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian), which won the biggest …

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