Skopje

The European Union could open accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia within weeks as both countries have made good progress in their preparations, the European Commission's enlargement chief, Oliver Varhelyi, said on Thursday.

A diplomat couple, both of whom serve as Turkish ambassadors in neighboring Balkan countries, travel 250 kilometers frequently to see each other.

The foreign ministers demanded rapid integration in the Western Balkans.

Within a few days, the EU will decide whether to start membership talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania. This was made clear during a meeting between the foreign ministers of Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia and representatives of the European Commission in Thessaloniki.

Police in North Macedonia have found 53 migrants crammed into a truck in a southeastern border region and arrested the driver on suspicion of belonging to a trafficking gang, officials said Thursday.

A police statement said the vehicle was stopped during a routine check late Wednesday near the town of Valandovo, which is close to North Macedonia's borders with Greece and Bulgaria.

The President of the European Council said on Friday the bloc will be holding intensive discussions in coming weeks on how future enlargement should be managed.

Charles Michel, who was in the Albanian capital, Tirana, to meet with Prime Minister Edi Rama, said all member countries "are unanimous on one point — that the Western Balkans' future should be toward Europe."

The European Union's top enlargement official on Wednesday held out new hope that the block will start accession talks within months with North Macedonia and Albania, whose bids were frustrated last year.

Midnight fireworks over Skopje during a New Year's Eve celebrations in North Macedonia's capital on January 1, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/Georgi Licovski.

Fireworks shower the skies over the Macedonian capital, Skopje, at midnight during a New Year's Eve celebration on Janurary 1, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/Georgi Licovski.

Teflon

The last few months have seen the ruling SNS in Serbia buffeted by several corruption scandals and other affairs. Perhaps the most benign of these has been that the Finance Minister, Sinisa Mali, has been found to have plagiarised his doctoral thesis, yet remained in his post. Intellectual theft does not, it seem, make one unfit to guard the country's finances.

One of the best-known TV and theatre actresses in North Macedonia, Silvija Stojanovska, was placed under house arrest on Thursday for alleged connections to a cocaine smuggling ring.

In news that shocked the public, Stojanovska was detained on Thursday evening. The Skopje criminal court later said it had placed her under 30 days of house arrest, on suspicion of illegal drug trading.

People living in the Western Balkans lose an average of 1.3 years of their lives because of dirty air. The total number of people who died prematurely is up to 5,000 people a year. This was stated by Majlinda Bregu, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), cited by BGNES.