SOFIA | SKOPJE Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov will not visit Skopje soon as there is no document to work on regarding the Neighbourhood agreement, Lena Borislavova, the head of the prime minister’s office, told Bulgarian national television in an interview, while Skopje was more optimistic, saying it hopes “to reach an agreement with Bulgaria” during the French EU Council presidency. Read more. /// BUCHAREST | HELSINKI | STOCKHOLM Romania backs quick NATO accession process for Finland and Sweden. Romania is ”strongly” in favour of a ”rapid” accession process for both Finland and Sweden, as the membership of these two states will strengthen NATO, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Sunday. Read more. /// LJUBLJANA Slovenian parliament sees record number of women MPs. Slovenia will have a more gender-balanced parliament than ever before as 36 of the 90 MPs who started their term on Friday, including the new speaker, are women. Read more. /// BELGRADE Serbia still refuses to impose sanctions on Russia. Serbia will still not join international sanctions against Russia, President Aleksandar Vučić told TV network Prva TV on Sunday. Read more. ‘Brace yourselves, winter is coming’, Vucic tells Serbs. Serbia fears food and energy shortages, and the coming winter will be “the most difficult in the last 70 years,” President Aleksandar Vučić said in a broadcast to the nation on Sunday, as reported by Croatian news website Index.hr. Read more. /// PRISTINA | BELGRADE Kosovo calls Serbia’s claims of countries rolling back recognition untrue. Kosovo has not received information of any countries withdrawing their recognition of Kosovo following claims of this nature by Serbia, Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla has said. Read more. /// TIRANA | SARAJEVO Bosnia reacts after Albania fails to pass resolution on Srebrenica genocide. Bosnian MP Sabina Cudic addressed an open letter to Prime Minister Edi Rama, criticising his government’s refusal to vote on a resolution condemning the Srebrenica genocide and accusing him of tabling the resolution as a concession to Serbia. Read more. |