Balkan countries

EU membership is a common aspiration of Serbia and Macedonia, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said on Friday.

Two countries could only accelerate this process through joint efforts, constant consultations and sharing of experiences, he noted.

The leaders of Greece's armed forces and police are holding emergency meetings in Athens to monitor developments in neighboring Turkey, according to government officials.

BELGRADE - Croatia stopped blocking Serbia's EU accession on Wednesday, but if Serbia were more like Montenegro it would reach the EU faster, sources in Brussels told Serbian newspaper Danas.

The "Mirdita, dobar dan" ("good day" in Albanian and Serbian) festival was opened in Belgrade on Wednesday afternoon.

The annual presentation of the cultural and social scene of Kosovo is set to run until Saturday.

According to the latest World Competitiveness Scoreboard of the Institute for Management Development released on Monday, the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy has improved.

Bulgaria occupies the 50th position out of 61 countries ranked in the scoreboard, which is an improvement of five positions compared to last year.

The number of migrants arriving in Greece dropped 90 percent in April, the European Union border agency Frontex said Friday, a sign that an agreement between Turkey and the EU to curb migration has had an impact, though tensions between Ankara and Brussels over Turkey's reluctance to amend its anti-terrorism laws have fueled fears that the deal will collapse.

Bulgaria has become the first EU Member State to sign a protocol for implementing an agreement for readmission of irregular migrants by Turkey, Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala has said.

The protocol was signed in Turkey by Efkan Ala and his Bulgarian counterpart Rumyana Bachvarova, the interior ministry in Sofia said in a statement on Thursday.

The privatization of the Smederevo steel mill was not factored into the European Commission's impro

The Greek Defence Ministry is highly concerned over Turkey’s recent escalation of violations against Greek territories.

Bulgaria will likely be under pressure to "yield to Constantinople yet again" if an when Turkey resurges, global intelligence company Stratfor says in an analysis.

The country "may once again become subject to foreign interests" as both the EU and NATO "are in precarious positions", "Bulgaria's balance between Russia and Europe is delicate and Turkey is experiencing a resurgence".