Albania

Albania’s socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama seems to be inflaming the relations between Greece and his country, after posting a provocative tweet on his account regarding Greece’s official complaint about the demolition of a Greek-Orthodox Church and skirmishes between locals and Albanian authorities.

Bulgaria is ready to help neighbouring Macedonia meet the requirements for joining the European Union and NATO, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said on Monday.   

He also said that increased migrant influx to Macedonia highlights the need to strengthen considerably the European integration of the countries of the western Balkans.

The Greek Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned what it called a "violent incident" at the church of Saint Athanas in the Albanian village of Dhermi, describing what happened as "unacceptable and contemptible".

Construction police from the local Himara Municipality went to Dhermi on Friday to remove the concrete roof of the church, claiming it was an illegal build.

Turkey?s banking system needs to prepare for an end to rapid lending growth and faces some risk from rising external funding needs, while western Balkan banks may struggle with bad loans, an ECB paper says.

Germany faced another increase in the number of asylum requests from citizens of the six Western Balkans Countries in July, despite repeated efforts by German and local authorities to halt the phenomenon.

Albania's police launched yet another massive operation aiming to the curb the marijuana trade as the harvest season nears. 

"We have engaged about 450 officers from the police and the Rapid Intervention Force for the operation carried in the Dukagjin area. We encountered no incidents," a police statement on Tuesday said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 16 condemned a surge in German attacks on refugee shelters and warned that the issue of asylum could become a bigger challenge for the European Union than the Greek debt crisis.

Russia has destroyed some 597 tonnes of food products illegally imported from blacklisted countries since August 6, statistics show.

A message dated August 15 and available on the website of Rosselkhoznadzor, the country's food safety watchdog, reads [RU] that "to date" some 550 tons of agricultural products have been detained and liquidated.

Russia on Thursday said it had added Montenegro to the list of countries from which it was banning food imports in retaliation to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

Moscow has added five European countries to its food imports ban list introduced in response to Western sanctions against Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.

"Those countries are Albania, Montenegro, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, as well as Ukraine under certain conditions," Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said during a cabinet  meeting on Thursday, according to RIA Novosti.