Johannes Hahn

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias was in Barcelona on Monday to join his European and regional counterparts at the 3rd Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean.

The summit, now in its 10th year, is to focus on regional issues and prospects for cooperation.

It is to be opened by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Spanish foreign minister Josep Borrell.

With the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) seemingly heading for early elections, European Union Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Friday that resorting to early polls will only derail the country's EU course.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and European Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn on Monday expressed their support for the outcome of a referendum to change the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and underlined the "historic opportunity" faced by the Balkan country.

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will take a big step to joining the European Union if the country supports a name change to "North Macedonia," the official in charge of the bloc's enlargement negotiations said Tuesday. 

"It was fake news was published to draw attention away from the successful visit of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to Kosovo and Metohija," Dacic told TV Pink.

He added that this piece of news was immediately found to be fake "because Thaci was supposedly to come to Presevo with EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn, but that was denied from the cabinet of Commissioner Hahn."

TIRANA, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Prime ministers of the Balkan region gathered on Monday in the Albanian coastal city of Durres to discuss the implementation and strengthening of the Regional Economic Zone.

Professor Bieber told Euronews portal that the deal between Belgrade and Pristina on border changes might inspire similar ambitions in the region. He flagged Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro as areas that might demand change.

"Kosovo has established borders which we respect and we don't need creativity in redrawing new borders," said Haradinaj in Western Balkans meeting on regional economic cooperation held in Albanian city of Duress.

Kosovo president Hashim Thaci stated earlier he was in favour of "creative" solutions.

As Associated Press (AP) reports, a similar meeting was held in the same place last year.

Main topic of this year's meeting is "regional economic integration " which includes discussions about developing joint vision for aligning with the EU, the implementation of a regional economic zone and other issues, AP reports.

"Kosovo gave the mandate to the Steering Team to draft the statute of the Community, that is, the Association (of Serb Municipalities, ZSO), which is in progress and will take time," Kocijancic told Tanjug on Wednesday.