Noticias

Leaders of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia on Monday signed up to approve the establishment of the new Regional Youth Cooperation Office - an idea based on a reconciliation project to bring French and German youth closer together after World War II.

"Serbia was among the first to support this idea last year," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told media after the signing ceremony at the Balkan Summit in Paris.

European Union and U.S. envoys warned Bosnia's leaders on Wednesday that the country risked missing out on closer ties with the EU in the near term and losing 2 billion euros in support due to an impasse over reforms.

Bosnia hoped Brussels would consider its EU membership bid at its next ministerial council in mid-July, but without the reforms this may not happen.

The assembly of Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, Republika Srpska, on Tuesday held an emergency session on decision of the state statistical agency to publish the results of Bosnia's 2013 census - without first agreeing on a shared methodology with Bosnian Serb experts.

After a heated debate, the assembly asked Bosnian State Statistical Agency to withdraw its decision to publish the results of the 2013 census, and asked the government of the entity to prepare a draft law that would allow publication of the census results by Republika Srpska autonomously.

Western diplomats urged Bosnian leaders Thursday to continue moving toward NATO membership, saying it could bring security and improve people's lives. But a Bosnian Serb leader says Serbs will not let Bosnia join until the alliance resolves its differences with Russia.

The ambassadors of the U.S., Britain and NATO issued a joint statement saying, "If you want positive change ... moving toward NATO is a great way to do it."

Bosnian Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic, and the Prime Ministers of the country’s two political entities, Republika Srpska’s [RS] Zeljka Cvijanovic and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s [FBiH] Fadil Novalic, still couldn't agree on the adoption of a coordination mechanism between Bosnian institutions.
 
The agreement is  a central component of the country’s efforts to become an EU ascension candidate.

The first few months of 2016 have seen almost frantic attempts by leading Western diplomats to salvage the new EU initiative for Bosnia and Herzegovina - which is not even that new anymore - and break through endless obstructions erected by local politicians.

Despite optimistic statements that still occasionally come from local and international officials about the country's progress on its EU path, by the beginning of June, local leaders had still failed to find solutions to any of the key issues that were supposed to unlock Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU accession process.

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic on Sunday said Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be the first ex-Yugoslav republics to sign a border demarcation agreement.

After meeting the President of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Covic, in the town of Tivat, Vujanovic said the agreement would be signed  by the end of August in Vienna. 

"The agreement with Montenegro is of special importance for Bosnia and Herzegovina since it will be the first one with one of our neighbours," Covic said.

In Albania, Socialist Movement for Integration of the parliamentary speaker, Ilir Meta, doesn’t rule out a possible reunification with the right wing in the future, as long as this serves to the interest of the country and the citizens.

Commenting the possible return to cooperating with Democratic Party, leader of the SMI, who is a speaker of the Albanian Parliament, Ilir Meta, alludes that the 2009-2013 period may be repeated.

“What’s important for us is for SMI to serve to the country in terms of governing”, Meta says.

Bosnia's tripartite Presidency on Thursday adopted a so-called Master Plan, which is hoped will help kick-start the reform process and enable Bosnia and Herzegovina to obtain EU candidate status in 2017.

On the same day, the governments of the two entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska, also adopted key documents that are a part of Bosnia's reform agenda as agreed with the EU and international financial institutions.