Sat, May 26 2012
European Council President Herman van Rompuy and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Latest stage of regional roadshow takes Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov to Sarajevo and Banja Luka.
Nikolai Mladenov emphasised to the envoys that Bulgaria’s main foreign policy priorities are the redefinition and strengthening of his country’s Balkan policy.
EU leaders including Herman van Rompuy have confirmed they will attend the Brdo summit on the Western Balkans, organised by Croatia and Slovenia, but a standoff between Serbia and Kosovo continues - but will not stop the summit being held, organisers say.
Three European commissioners will help out much-criticised EU foreign policy supremo Catherine Ashton, who has a job, she says, that is ‘built on three people’s jobs’.
Nedjo Ikonic allegedly oversaw the massive killings and detentions of Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is claiming the post-conflict Western Balkans as a model for future policy actions, while within the EU and within the region itself, summits are planned to advance EU integration.
Dennis Blair, the director of US national intelligence, recently warned that Bosnia is ‘Europe’s biggest security threat’.
Matthew Nimetz, after talks in Skopje and heading for Athens, hopes to see progress speeded up but says that he has not come with a concrete proposal for a compromise in the long-standing dispute about the use of the name Macedonia.
In the face of the most significant economic crisis in this generation, Bulgaria's European commitment and perspective is crucial, European Commission President Jose Barroso says.
European Commission proposes to renew autonomous trade preferences for the Western Balkans.
Calling on Serbia and Kosovo to settle their differences, EU foreign policy chief Ashton underlines that the ‘future of Kosovo is European’ but authorities in Pristina need to do a lot more to meet their commitments.
'The EU is with you until you are in the EU,' EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton says in a speech in Belgrade on the Western Balkans.
European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, on the eve of the inauguration of Croatia’s new president Ivo Josipovic, will underline his reform message to senior leaders.
Nikolai Mladenov’s agenda includes South Eastern Europe, getting Bulgaria into the Schengen and euro zones, and gaining EU confidence in the government in Sofia. It will not be as simple as that.
Spain, current holder of the rotating presidency of the EU, will do its utmost to achieve progress in the process of integrating the Western Balkans into the bloc, its foreign minister says.
Governments in Prague and Bucharest could soon join Sofia in instituting temporary moratoriums on shale gas exploration.
Coalition around ruling Democratic Party has largest share of vote in Serbia's parliamentary election, according to exit polls.
Centre-right New Democracy is said by exit polls to have largest share of votes, but diminished even from its 2009 defeat, while socialists Pasok – the 2009 victors – gets somewhere around 14 to 17 per cent.
An agreement reached with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will allow voters with dual citizenship in Kosovo to vote in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections in Serbia.
Twenty radical Muslims suspected of being members of a terrorist group that has been linked to the murder of five fishermen in early April.
EU is just a mish mash of countriesof countries which on paper are deemed to all be playing on the same side. O fcourse the situation is not that easy as every country is trying its utmost at taking a maximum profit from each other and bugger the consequences. Life was much simpler before half baked eu laws are forced on all without any respect for the nations social cultural or ecconomic situation. All countries have their own problems which are far more important than eu and should be left to resolve them in their own way
"Bulgaria must concentrate on its own issues before attempting to take on the responsibilities of other countries."
Then no country should take on any responsibilities outside of it.
What country in the EU doesn't have internal issues?
Bulgarian has a long way to go before taking on such responsibility.Trust is paramount and that can only come with time. Bulgaria must concentrate on its own issues before attempting to take on the responsibilities of other countries.