Southeastern Europe

The Macedonian site "24 info" published an appeal not to allow Bulgarians to the grave of Gotse Delchev during the celebrations of the 151st anniversary of his birth on February 4 in Skopje.

The recent announcement of a long-term energy agreement between Turkey and Bulgaria giving the latter access for 13 years to Turkish regasification terminals, came as a surprise to some and caused consternation in Athens.

Von der Leyen will start the tour in Skopje on October 26, continue on October 27 in Pristina and Tirana, then on October 28 stay in Belgrade and Sarajevo and finally on October 29 in Podgorica, as part of the Balkan tour, it has been announced on the website of European Commission.

"In an open conversation with Sarrazin, I reiterated Serbia's position regarding all issues in the Western Balkans: respect for international law, the territorial integrity of all countries, and constant support for peace, connecting among nations and establishing cooperation," Vui wrote.

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Commissions leading the search for people still missing from the collapse of Yugoslavia hope a regional database will improve cooperation and yield fresh information.

The war in Ukraine is dividing the Balkans and reviving old tensions. The small mountainous state of Montenegro, a country of barely 650,000 inhabitants, has been caught up in the geopolitical crossfire between West and East.

While Greece shares some demographic characteristics with richer Western European countries, it is also converging in terms of its worst problems with the Balkans.

Belgrade – The impact of the war in Ukraine on the Western Balkans and the region’s European perspective topped the agenda as President Borut Pahor met his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade on Saturday. Pahor hopes the region’s leaders will muster enough political wisdom to solve all bilateral issues through dialogue.

Ljubljana – Slovenian President Borut Pahor will host the leaders of the Brdo-Brijuni initiative of regional cooperation for a summit at Brdo estate on 12 September which is to call on the EU to step up enlargement to the Western Balkans.

Bled – President Borut Pahor reiterated his appeal for the speedy integration of Western Balkans countries in the EU as he argued in an address to the Bled Strategic Forum that they should not be allowed to fall under Russia’s sphere of influence should new bloc divisions occur.