Bosnia and Herzegovina

After numerous procedural difficulties, Bosnia's Central Election Commission, CIK, has finalized the appointment of delegates to the House of Peoples, one of two chambers of parliament in the Federation entity, commission officials told Balkan Insight.

Final certification is expected on Thursday after the CIK reviews the appeals it received on Wednesday afternoon.

Bosnia's parliament on Thursday will debate a resolution calling on the government to reject a proposed agreement with Montenegro aimed at determining the border.

The initiative, proposed by parliamentarian Denis Becirovic in November, says it is unacceptable for Bosnia to allow Montenegro to keep a part of the strategically important Bay of Kotor, close to the town of Herceg Novi.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has insisted that the sanctions against Russia should remain in place until the country starts fulfilling its commitments under the Minsk agreement.

New estimates of Croatia's likely GDP growth from the World Bank are not looking good for the country as it battles to exit a six-year economic crisis.

The World Bank in June 2014 estimated Croatia's GDP growth that year would be minus-0.5 per cent, rising to 1.2 per cent growth in 2015.

Serbians welcome in "Orthodox" New Year

BELGRADE -- Tens of thousands of people across the country on Tuesday celebrated the beginning of the new year according to the Julian calendar.

This is the calendar adhered to by the Serbian Orthodox Church, so the January 13 festivities are sometimes referred to as the Orthodox, or Serbian New Year.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his British counterpart, Phillip Hammond, are due in Bosnia later this week, to kick-start the new EU plan for the country, diplomatic sources told Balkan Insight on Wednesday.

Vucic, Dodik discuss "Bosnia's EU path, relations in region"

BELGRADE -- Serbia believes that Bosnia-Herzegovina "should be on the EU path, and will back it along that road,"Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik have met to discuss improvements to the relations between Serbia and RS and stressed that the region's stability was crucial to both sides.

Serbia wants the best possible relations in the region, Vucic told the joint news conference after the meeting on Tuesday.

The outgoing deputy president of Bosnia’s Federation entity sent thousands of documents to the prosecution about war crimes in which he alleges officials from his former Party for Democratic Action were involved.

Bosnia's new US ambassador, Maureen Cormick, arrived in Sarajevo on Tuesday amidst a brewing political, economic and social crisis that has bedevilled a new international approach to the troubled country.