The EU should recognize that Albanian politicians are the main threat to peace and stability not only in the Balkans but also in Europe.
This is what Serbian First Deputy PM and Foreign Minister has told the website euractiv.com, Beta is reporting on Wednesday.
The EU should recognise that Albanian politicians are the main threat to peace and stability not only in the Balkans but also in Europe, Serbia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ivica Dačić told EURACTIV.com.
Kosovo Assembly President and leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), Kadri Veseli, writes in an op-ed ahead of the Western Balkans Six summit set to take place in July that in Kosovo too much time has been spent on the border demarcation with Montenegro and the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities which, although agreed upon, are facing disapproval from the opposition parties and part of the ruling coalition.
The European Union yesterday (16 March) encouraged the Western Balkan countries to create a common market, which it estimated could create over 80,000 jobs in an area of high unemployment.
http://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/eu-pushes-western-balkan-toward-common-market/
Shpend Ahmeti, mayor of Pristina and member of Vetevendosje general council, writes in an opinion piece for EurActiv that the people of Kosovo are losing patience with EU and are accusing it of prioritising Serbian accession over their own sovereignty. "The question is raised whether the EU still has something to offer to the Western Balkans beyond financial assistance. EU foreign policy in the Balkans can only be described as the least common denominator of 28 member countries.
Relations between Serbia and Kosovo may seem tense. But a new poll by an NGO shows that an overwhelming majority of Serbians wouldn’t support armed conflict in order to reclaim the province, which unilaterally declared independence in 2008.
http://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/poll-serbs-not-willing-to-go-to-war-over-kosovo/
Serbian and Kosovar leaders agreed to continue talks after a tense meeting in Brussels on Tuesday (24 January), which only succeeded in further antagonising the two sides.
http://www.euractiv.com/section/enlargement/news/tensions-flare-at-serbia-kosovo-meeting/
Former Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle told an audience today (7 December) that if the EU distances itself from the Western Balkans, other geopolitical players will immediately seize the opportunity to assert their influence over the region.
The ex-Commissioner, who now works as a special envoy to the Balkans for the Czech ministry of foreign affairs, spoke to the BALKANS – boosting connections on the road to the EU conference, organised by the Friends of Europe, a Brussels think tank.
The EU helped shape Kosovo’s democracy. It should not stand by as that democracy is eroded by an increasingly authoritarian government, writes Andrea Lorenzo Capussela, author of State-Building in Kosovo: Democracy, Corruption and the EU in the Balkans.
Kosovo’s foreign affairs minister has reaffirmed his country’s ambitions to join both NATO and the European Union, in an interview with EurActiv Spain.
Speaking to Spanish journalists, Enver Hoxhaj outlined his country’s future plans for better relations with the EU and the Vatican, as well as ambitious plans to join NATO and the EU. However, he did say that Kosovo has “excellent relations with Turkey, as well as the Saudis and the other Gulf States. They supported us during some difficult times.”