Balkans

The UK government introduced to parliament on Tuesday proposed legislation, dubbed the 'Stop the Boats' bill, to crack down on illegal migration, in many cases by Albanians using small boats to cross the Channel from France.

Located in the 'European district' of the Belgian capital, Brussels, the House of European History sits next to the European Commission and a stone's throw from the European Parliament, its main sponsor. Spread over four floors, the exhibition space is dedicated to the history of Europe and is a key part of the EU's own tourist offer.

"The lessons are in the Montenegrin language, so it's hard when children sit in class and don't understand anything; luckily, a lot of teachers and pupils speak English, so they manage to communicate," Igor's mother, Ana Miroshnichenko, told BIRN.

BELGRADE - EU Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi said on Tuesday in Belgrade the signing of an agreement on the first tranche of an EU grant for the construction of a Belgrade-Nis high-speed rail line was important for Serbia and the entire Western Balkan region and demonstrated that Europe delivered results.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic said on Tuesday EU and regional cooperation were Serbia's main strategic foreign policy priorities and noted that European companies had directly employed 281,363 people in Serbia as of December 2022.

BELGRADE - The head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Emanuele Giaufret said on Tuesday a new financial agreement on EU support to Serbia's energy sector was a concrete example of EU solidarity that would help vulnerable families and entrepreneurs deal with the energy crisis.

Macedonian and Bulgarian members of the joint history commission - established to find common ground between the two radically different views on history - differ sharply on the external pressures that they say are hampering progress.

The Kon-Tiki building in the Sarajevo municipality of Vogosca was officially handed over to the Sarajevo Canton's ministry of veterans' affairs on Wednesday and will be turned into the Museum of the Suffering of the Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The formation of a government in the Bosniak and Croat-dominated Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the bigger of Bosnia's two entities, remains on hold since the October 2022 election, as the governing coalition that promised its quick formation falls apart. 

The United States is calling on Bulgaria and North Macedonia to "de-escalate" their rhetoric and quickly resolve "bilateral disputes".

This is stated in a position of the US State Department, expressed to the Macedonian section of "Voice of America".