Regions

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has said he does not expect next week's EU summit to pave the way for his country to start EU membership talks, blaming Bulgaria, Politico reported today.

It's always a good idea to come to the fresh air and crystalline waters of Lake Ohrid, one of the most beautiful places in Europe.  Unfortunately, the reason for last week's gathering of leaders from the region - 'Open Balkan' - is not a good idea. In fact, it's not even a good name.

Hussam al-Aqouli remembers the exact spot along southern Iraq's Lake Sawa where his two daughters once dipped their feet into clear waters. Now he stands there two years on and the barren earth cracks beneath him.

Having to defend Gotland against a foreign invasion seemed such a far-fetched notion to Swedish decision-makers at the start of the century that they demilitarized the Baltic Sea island.

Now, the Swedish Armed Forces are back, and they are practicing with U.S. troops not just how to defend the island with a population of 58,000, but how to take it back from a foreign aggressor.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in Sofia that he strongly supports an agreement to start EU accession talks between the Republic of North Macedonia and Albania.

The Bulgarian veto on the start of negotiations for the membership of North Macedonia in the EU is expected to be the main topic of today's visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Bulgaria.

He arrives in Sofia from Skopje, where he told North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski this morning that the country is ready to start EU membership talks.

The EU must keep its Thessaloniki promise to the Western Balkans.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis will inform his counterparts about the Turkish crescendo of provocations in the framework of the Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP) Summit that will take place today in Thessaloniki, as he stated in an interview given to the Municipal Radio of Thessaloniki, FM 100.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and the European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi gave a press conference after their meeting in the Council of Ministers, at which the EU membership of North Macedonia was discussed.

At the beginning, Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski addressed the audience, greeting all participants gathered, as citizens of the Western Balkans.