Representatives of the immigrant community in the Spanish province of Valladolid, estimated at nearly 120 000 people, presented the Valladolid provincial council their demands for access to stable and quality jobs, social rights and the elimination of bureaucratic hindrances, Spanish daily ABC reported. Regional authorities met with the representatives of the various immigrant communities in the province, whose swelling numbers made them increasingly important in the province and the larger autonomous community of Castilla y Leon, of which Valladolid is a part of. read more

Greek MEPs expressed satisfaction after succeeding in getting a European Union progress report on Macedonia amended to call for the dispute over Macedonia’s name to be resolved before EU accession talks with Macedonia. Greek daily Kathimerini reported on April 24 that after much lobbying, a clause that originally read only that the name dispute “should not pose a barrier” to Macedonian membership of international organisations, was strengthened. read more

Nato secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived in Skopje on April 21 for talks with Macedonian leaders, MIA news agency reported. The visit comes barely a fortnight after the Nato summit in Bucharest, where Macedonia did not receive an invitation to join the alliance over a Greek, which made some Macedonian politicians say Scheffer was an unwanted guest in Skopje. read more

At an April 21 meeting, Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaçi will ask United Nations Security Council members to recognise his country as independent, while Serbian president Boris Tadic will invoke international law to ask the UNSC to reject Kosovo’s independence. This emerged from Kosovo and Serbian media reports ahead of the UNSC meeting, which is being held to discuss a quarterly report on Kosovo from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) chief Joachim Ruecker. read more

Romanian prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said that Romania stood a better chance to join the US visa waiver programme if the European Union handled the negotiations, rather than pursue a bilateral agreement with Washington. "I believe that, from our point of view, it would be more opportune if the talks on lifting visa restrictions are held between the US and the EU. We must be realist, the EU has more influence than Romania in any kind of negotiations with the US,"Tariceanu said during a talk-show on Realitatea TV private broadcaster on April 19. read more

The European Union adjustment committee of Turkish parliament endorsed on April 17 the amendments to a controversial text of the country's Penal Code, used to prosecute intellectuals in the country, Turkish press reported on April 18. Article 301, long criticised by the EU, which Turkey wants to join, made Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and Armenian-born journalist Hrant Dink subject to legal persecution for their comments on the 1915-1917 mass killings of Armenians. Dink was shot dead by in January 2007 in the office of bilingual newspaper Agos, of which he was the editor-in-chief. read more

Members of Kosovo’s parliament requested the legislature on April 17 to issue a formal statement against plans by Belgrade to include the breakaway province, which has declared itself independent, in Serbian elections due on May 11. Kosovo news website KosovaLive said that the MPs wanted a formal request to be made to UNMIK, the UN Mission in Kosovo, to prevent Serbia attempting to organise voting for its elections in Kosovo. read more

Romanian president Traian Basescu approved the appointment of the country's former ambassador to the European Union, Lazar Comanescu, as foreign minister, the presidency's press service said in a statement. Basescu signed the decree just an hour after prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu nominated Comanescu, in start contrast to the two-month debate that preceded the appointment of Comanescu's predecessor, Adrian Cioroianu. read more

Romanian prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu could once again take over as interim foreign minister while he looks for a permanent replacement for Adrian Cioroianu, who resigned on April 11, according to reports in Romanian-language media. Culture minister Adrian Iorgulescu from the Liberal party said on April 14 that Tariceanu would take over the portfolio for the time being, as quoted by Adevarul daily. read more

Macedonia’s parliament voted to disband in the early hours of April 12 and hold snap elections on June 1. Prime minister Nikola Grouevski called the elections after Skopje’s dispute with neighbouring Greece prevented Macedonia from receiving an invitation to join Nato last week. read more