SofiaEcho RSS feed South Eastern Europe

Macedonia offers olive branch to Bulgaria

Alex Bivol — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:51:00 +0200

Under pressure from Brussels on the name issue dispute with Greece, Skopje seeks to re-build relationship with with Sofia.

Kosovo’s governing coalition breaks up – reports

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:12:00 +0200

Parties that governed together in Pristina fall out because of their battle in Kosovo’s local government elections.

Regional fallout from Macedonia name dispute

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:38:00 +0200

Media reports say that the EU will pressure Athens and Skopje to come up with a solution to the Macedonia name dispute by December 7, or Brussels will take a cooler approach to Macedonia’s EU hopes; while a row breaks out in Belgrade after Serbia’s foreign minister takes sides in the dispute.

A special purpose base

Tsvetelina Manolova, Panayot Angarev — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:01:00 +0200

Russia’s planned humanitarian base in Serbia could hold deeper strategic interests

Renewed bank re-assurances for Romania despite stalled bailout-mandated reforms

Alex Bivol — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:48:00 +0200

The IMF has withdrawn its mission, which was due to assess Romania's compliance with the terms of the bailout, and now expects Romania to miss the fiscal deficit target set by the bailout agreement.

Hungary declares flu epidemic

The Budapest Times — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:22:00 +0200

Hungarian health authorities declared a flu epidemic on November 17, saying the number of patients reporting flu symptoms to doctors had reached 22 100

Serbia speaks on Macedonia name dispute – reports

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:13:00 +0200

Greece’s alternate foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas in talks in Belgrade at the start of a Western Balkans tour.

Kosovo elections praised by allies, slammed by Serbia

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:17:00 +0200

While the US, UK and Swedish presidency of the EU praise the conduct of Kosovo’s first local elections since its self-declared independence, Belgrade slams the vote as illegitimate.

Bulgaria ties with Macedonia, Greece and Romania in TI corruption index

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:27:00 +0200

Transparency International’s 2009 Corruption Perception Index ranks Bulgaria among four South Eastern European countries similarly perceived as corrupt – in joint 71st place out of 180 countries.

Circus from hell comes to Czech Republic

Gabriel Hershman — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:52:00 +0200

Muzzled bears are forced to perform grotesque sporting feats for entertainment, including ice hockey and handstands

Bulgaria’s support for Macedonia conditional on its behaviour – Borissov

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0200

Bulgarian PM Boiko Borissov and visiting Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski agree that their countries’ relations are ‘friendly and fraternal’ but Borissov warns that Sofia’s support for Skopje depends on Macedonia keeping to the rules of good neighbourliness.

Major parties claim victories in Kosovo local elections

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:58:00 +0200

Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci says that his Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) won 20 of 36 municipalities, while president Fatmir Sejdiu's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) said it had won the mayoral election in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina.

Macedonian PM Gruevski in Bulgaria

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:27:00 +0200

Macedonia, hoping for Bulgarian support for its potential EU accession process, was expected to hear tough talk from Sofia on a change of attitudes towards Bulgarians.

Serbia begins official mourning for Patriarch Pavle

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:47:00 +0200

Decision on successor as head of the Serbian Orthodox Church expected after 40-day interval following Pavle’s funeral on November 19 2009.

Albanian president to get a 54 euro salary raise next year

Petar Kostadinov — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:25:00 +0200

Currently Topi's monthly salary was 1815 euro which as of June 1 2010 will change to 1869 euro.

Local elections in Kosovo ahead

Petar Kostadinov — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:17:00 +0200

This will be the first elections organised solely by local authorities.

Man of war

Alex Bivol — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0200

As presidential elections in Romania draw nearer, president Traian Basescu is happy to see the political deadlock continue

Debating ‘Enlargement lite’

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0200

Assessing the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy and its Eastern Partnership

Debate about Bulgaria’s leverage over Macedonia

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:35:00 +0200

With Bulgaria angered by what it sees as Macedonia’s territorial claims, some say that Sofia should use EU membership hopes as leverage against Skopje; but minister for Bulgarians abroad Bozhidar Dimitrov says Macedonia’s elite does not really want the country in the EU.

Macedonian, Greek prime ministers ‘break the ice’ in name dispute talks

Clive Leviev-Sawyer — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:27:00 +0200

Greek prime minister George Papandreou and his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski met for more than an hour in Brussels, agreeing that it was essential to find a solution to the dispute over the name Macedonia.