A bishop from the “Macedonian Orthodox Church” will accompany a Bulgarian Orthodox Church delegation to Jerusalem at Easter 2019 to fetch the “Holy Fire”. This emerged at a meeting between Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and Bulgarian Orthodox Church Stara Zagora Metropolitan Kiprian, who heads the church’s commission on relations with the church in North […]
Opposition in Albania held another demonstration in front of the country’s parliament today where there were violent clashes between opposition’s supporters and the numerous police forces that were there to maintain order. Meanwhile, demonstrators also threw smoke bombs and other strong objects towards law enforcement officers. Police on the other hand used water cannons to […]
European Parliament has voted today in favour of its position to continue negotiations for the visa liberalization process with Kosovo. In a message on Twitter, European Parliament’s rapporteur on Kosovo, Tanja Fajon said that it’s now to the EU Council to decide. “A good majority in favour of visa liberalization for Kosovo. Thank you, European […]
Bulgaria’s National Assembly agreed on March 27 to extend by three months the deadline for an ad hoc committee investigating allegations in European and Bulgarian media about corruption in granting citizenship to foreigners. The committee was set up by a December 14 decision following the arrest in October of State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad head […]
The first possible date for early general elections could be in June, said Nebojsa Stefanovic, high official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). However, Stefanovic, who is also interior minister, did not exclude early voting in 2020, as another possibility. “It is hard to say when the elections would take place… because that depends […]
Mystery continues to surround allegations of a link between the March 2018 poisoning attack on former Russian intelligence officer Sergey Skripal and the April 2015 poisoning of Bulgarian weapons industry businessman Emil Gebrev. The link, according to claims by the website Bellingcat, takes the form of Sergey Fedotov, an officer of Russian military intelligence GRU, […]
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has sacked Deputy Minister of Justice Vesna Mikic, who belongs to the Serbian community. Premier Haradinaj said that the decision comes as a result of the hate speech and unacceptable statements made by the official in question. PM Haradinaj’s decision followed deputy minister Mikic’s comments two days ago with regards […]
The decision of the Hague tribunal to impose a life sentence on the former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic has sparked a variety of reactions in Serbia. Some have welcomed the decision, some have criticized it and some others have been silent, either because they do not want to be reminded of their “sinful” […]
EU Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn declared today that he condemns the violent protests taken place in Albania and several other Balkan countries. He sent out a message for the countries of the region saying that “political changes can only happen through democratic processes”. According to Hahn, it’s not the EU’s job to say who should […]
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was sentenced to life in prison by the UN war crimes tribunal appeals chamber on Wednesday. The former political leader of Bosnian Serbs was handed 40 years in 2016 for genocide at Srebrenica in 1995 and other crimes against humanity during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Both Karadzic and the […]
In its fourth opinion on Albania, the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) urges Tirana to make operational the county’s law on the protection of national minorities through the adoption of further legislation. Examining the progress made and providing recommendations on the basis of the last year’s […]
Several persons have been detained including one high school pupil, after the anti-government protests held in Belgrade during the weekend. The opposition headed by the Alliance for Serbia (SZS) demand that all detained be released until 3 P.M. On Saturday evening, protesters led by opposition politicians have stormed the public broadcasting service RTS; since the […]
Protesters broke into Serbia’s state television building for the first time in almost 20 years and Albanian police used tear gas to disperse a crowd trying to break into the parliament on a day of anti-government demonstrations across the Balkans. In Belgrade demonstrators broke into the state-run Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) building on Saturday, demanding to […]
Bulgaria’s Cabinet has approved an agreement with the Republic of North Macedonia on cooperation on disaster response, the government information service in Sofia stated on March 13. The agreement was signed in Strumica on November 23, 2017. The document defines the general framework for cooperation in the field of prevention, preparedness and response to disasters, […]
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has commented the meeting that he had with German chancellor Angela Merkel advisers, Jan Hecker and Matthias Leuttenberg, who travelled to Belgrade after their visit to Pristina. Initially there was no official statement, but in the end, Vucic commented the meeting. “We’re not close to reaching an agreement with Kosovo, because […]
Opposition in Albania held another protest yesterday in front of parliament. Everything started with tight security measures in this area of the capital and MPs who made their way inside parliament to start their session at 9 am in order to prevent any possible clash with demonstrators. Afterwards, PM Edi Rama also arrived there along with […]
Philip Reeker, who is soon expected to be appointed Assistant US Secretary of State for Europe, called on the government of Kosovo to lift the tax imposed on Serbian imports, considering this as a condition for dialogue between the two countries to resume. “Kosovo will not give up anything by negotiating, but it risks everything […]
Opposition in Albania has warned for bigger protests today after the central electoral body in the country has decided to replace opposition MPs who decided to resign two weeks ago as part of a unanimous decision taken by several opposition parties. This decision aimed at pressuring the current socialist led government to resign, form an interim […]
“You had a name dispute, you did not have territorial differences with North Macedonia, which is easier,” Ivica Dacic said at the beginning of his speech at the 4th Economic Forum of Delphi, while congratulating the event organizers and stressing that he himself, as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister, had warned […]
The country’s capital city has once again been the scene of a massive protest organized by the opposition. Yesterday, the ruling party decided to convene parliament in a plenary session to avoid the protest that the opposition had announced for Thursday. The situation became tense and escalated in physical clashes between opposition MPs and riot […]
