Samuel Zbogar

Ljubljana – The parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee discussed on Wednesday a bill to ratify the protocols on Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO and decided to propose to the National Assembly to pass it. The committee proposed that the bill be discussed at an emergency session on Thursday.

The next national headcount should be held in April 2021 instead of April 2020, the State Statistical Office suggested in a statement on Tuesday - again postponing the task of holding a census, which has been delayed for many years.

It said that it will make the suggestion to the Justice Ministry, which should send new census legislation for parliament.

The meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his counterpart of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Zoran Zaev is good news in terms of solving the name row, European Union ambassador to Skopje Samuel Zbogar told reporters on Thursday.

The newly elected FYROM  (Macedonia) Assembly President Talat Xhaferi has received the keys to the cabinet where the seals for certification of documents are located.

The new president of the parliament in Skopje can therefore officially take office and inform President Gjorge Ivanov that there is a new majority in parliament.

Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn will use his visit to Skopje, Macedonia, on Thursday to get "first-hand" information on the talks between parties on forming a new government following the December 11 elections, the EU ambassador to Macedonia, Samuel Zbogar, said on Tuesday.

Kosovo political analyst Ilir Ibrahimi told BIRN that the failure of parliament to vote on a border demarcation deal with Montenegro, which Kosovo's international partners had advocated, had set back its relationship with the international community, especially with the US.

EU rep in Kosovo: Special court will be set up

PRISTINA -- A special court that will deal with the cases of war crimes committed in Kosovo will be established, EU's special representative in Pristina said on Tuesday.

This will happen "either by the decision of the Kosovo parliament or by the decision of the UN Security Council," Samuel Zbogar stated.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Security measures have been stepped up in Kosovska Mitrovica following a series of incidents and heightened tensions over the past week, town Mayor Goran Rakic said on Friday.

Kosovo's National Council for European Integration has warned that illegal migration of Kosovars to the EU rose steeply last year.  

Around 20,000 Kosovars are thought to have left Kosovo in 2014 with the aim of illegally crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border to reach the EU.