ANKARA, July 1 (Reuters) - An accord signed with Finland and Sweden to lift Turkey's veto on their NATO membership bids is not the end of the matter and obliges…
SOFIA, July 1 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's military late on Thursday carried out a controlled explosion of a Soviet-era naval mine that had drifted close to the country's Black Sea coast, the defence…
SOFIA, July 1 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's outgoing Prime Minister Kiril Petkov rejected a Russian ultimatum to reverse a decision to expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff by noon on Friday and named the country's finance…
Bulgaria's Socialists, allies in the outgoing coalition government of Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, said they would not back a new Petkov-led Cabinet, angry with the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomats.…
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police blocked hundreds of people from gathering for Istanbul's annual Pride parade on Sunday and detained dozens after local authorities banned the march from going ahead…
Turkey will reconsider a 2004 decision to abolish capital punishment, the justice minister said, after President Tayyip Erdogan raised the death penalty in connection with the cause of this week's…
Bulgaria's parliament gave the government the green light on Friday to approve a European Union membership negotiation framework for North Macedonia, in a move that may allow its northern neighbour…
Bulgaria's block on North Macedonia's progress to join the European Union is a "disgrace", Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said as he arrived for a special Balkans summit with EU…
Discussions between Turkey, Finland and Sweden about the Nordic countries' NATO membership will continue and an alliance summit in Madrid next week is not a deadline, Turkey said after talks in Brussels on Monday. Finland…
TIRANA — Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said he doesn’t expect an EU summit next week to clear the way for his country to begin membership talks and placed the…
SOFIA, June 13 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's foreign and energy ministers resigned on Monday after their party, the populist ITN, quit the governing coalition last week, compounding the Balkan country's political…
In just over three months since the start of the Ukrainian crisis, Russians have opened more than 1,000 businesses in Serbia, and the latest figures show that over 10 companies…
Heavy rainfall in Turkey’s capital on Saturday led to flooding that killed one person, authorities said. Search and rescue teams located the body of the 27-year-old man, who worked as…
ISTANBUL, June 10 (Reuters) - Turkey's Treasury said on Friday the fight against inflation remained the top priority in its macroeconomic policy after it and other state institutions announced measures to support…
Bulgaria's prime minister pledged to lead a minority government on Wednesday as the populist ITN party quit the government over disagreements on budget spending and whether Bulgaria should back North…
KYIV, June 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed as "empty words" assurances from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Moscow will not use the situation to its advantage if Kyiv allows…
Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced Bosnian Serb nationalists to postpone plans to pull the Republika Srpska (RS) region out of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s national institutions, a Serb member of the Bosnian…
TIRANA, (Reuters) - Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that his party has picked the country's chief of defense to be the new president after failing to choose a consensus…
ISTANBUL, (Reuters) - Turkey's trade deficit jumped 157% year-on-year in May to $10.68 billion, the Trade Ministry said on Thursday, as soaring energy import costs continue to widen the shortfall. Russia's invasion of…
Turkey will be known as Türkiye at the United Nations from now on, after it agreed to a formal request from Ankara. Several international bodies will be asked to make…
Croatia is ready to join the euro zone, the European Commission said on Wednesday, paving the way for the Balkan country to adopt the euro from the start of 2023…
ISTANBUL, June 1 (Reuters) - Turkish state-owned energy importer BOTAS said on Wednesday it had raised natural gas prices for households, industry and and electricity production, with the price for households raised…
Croatia is ready to increase the capacity of the Adriatic oil pipeline to supply Hungary and Slovakia with crude in case of any disruptions to imports from Russia via the…
A chief adviser to Turkey's president told his U.S. counterpart that Turkey wanted "concrete steps" on the existence of what it calls "terrorist organisations" in Finland and Sweden before it…
Israel on Monday warned its citizens against travel to Turkey, citing Iranian threats of revenge for the assassination last week of a Revolutionary Guards colonel. Teheran has blamed Israel for…
Thunder and lightning is seen and heard in the sky over the city of Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, during a storm on Saturday night. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI
ISTANBUL, May 29 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's talks last week with Finnish and Swedish delegations were not at the "expected level" and Ankara cannot say yes to "terrorism-supporting" countries…
BELGRADE, May 29 (Reuters) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday he had agreed a new three-year gas supply contract in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I can…
ISTANBUL, May 27 (Reuters) - Turkey expects Sweden and Finland to take concrete action and halt what it says is their support for terrorist groups in order for Ankara to…
The European Council's persistent lack of consensus on launching accession discussions with North Macedonia has come under fire by centrist MEPs of the Renew political grouping. The MEPs lamented that…
ISTANBUL, May 23 (Reuters) - The number of foreigners arriving in Turkey last month more than tripled from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, reinforcing expectations that a rebound in the sector will…
ISTANBUL, May 21 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has objected to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, held phone calls with the leaders of the two countries on Saturday and discussed…
ISTANBUL, (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he will speak to Finland on Saturday, while maintaining his opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership bids over their history of hosting members of groups…
U.S. President Joe Biden meets the leaders of Sweden and Finland on Thursday after the nations set aside their long-standing neutrality and moved to join the NATO alliance in response…
Turkey has told allies that it will reject Sweden and Finland's membership to NATO, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in a video posted on his Twitter account on Thursday. Finland and…
SOFIA, May 18 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's ruling coalition agreed on Wednesday a stimulus package worth 2 billion levs ($1.08 billion) to shield companies and low-income consumers from the surge in energy and…
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Swedish and Finnish delegations should not bother coming to Ankara to convince it to approve their NATO bid. Sweden's government has formally…
SOFIA, May 16 (Reuters) - Bulgaria on Monday approved a new stimulus package to shield companies from the surge in energy prices bolstered by the war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov…
Croatia aims to become the 20th member of the euro zone in 2023 after its parliament adopted legislation on introducing the shared currency from Jan. 1, the state news agency…
The Super Flower Blood Moon seen in the sky during the lunar eclipse over Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia, 16 May 2022. This eclipse has been given a lot of…
Anti-abortion activists have protested in Croatia amid a fierce debate about reproductive rights in the country. While abortion is legal in the strongly Catholic EU nation, rising religious pressure means…
ISTANBUL, May 14 (Reuters) - Turkey has not shut the door to Sweden and Finland joining NATO but wants negotiations with the Nordic countries and a clampdown on what it sees as…
ANKARA, May 13 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday it was not possible for NATO-member Turkey to support plans by Sweden and Finland to join the pact, saying the Nordic countries…
PRISTINA, May 12 (Reuters) - Kosovo government said on Thursday it will apply for membership at the European rights watchdog the Council of Europe, seizing an opportunity after Russia quit…
A photo taken with a drone shows an aerial view of people attending the opening ceremony of the 'Third Garden' art installation by Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, on the Turkey-Syria…
Bulgaria will not support European Union's new set of sanctions against Russia if the Balkan country does not get a derogation from the proposed ban on buying Russian oil, Deputy Prime Minister…
ISTANBUL, May 5 (Reuters) - Turkey's annual inflation jumped to a two-decade high of 69.97% in April, according to data on Thursday, fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine conflict and rising energy and commodity…
SARAJEVO, May 4 (Reuters) - Bosnia will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Oct. 2, the electoral commission said on Wednesday, although rival ethnic leaders have failed to agree on…
ISTANBUL, May 1 (Reuters) - Turkish riot police detained dozens of protesters trying to reach Istanbul's main Taksim Square for May Day demonstrations against economic hardship caused by raging inflation.…
ISTANBUL, April 29 (Reuters) - Turkey's tourism revenues jumped 122.4% from a year earlier to $5.45 billion in the first quarter, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed on Friday. It said…
Montenegro's parliament approved a new government, comprising moderate parties that are both pro-European and pro-Serb, led by Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, who said its key goal will be to unblock…
ATHENS/ANKARA, (Reuters) - Greece accused its neighbour Turkey of undermining NATO unity by violating its airspace with fighter jets, prompting an angry Turkish response that blamed Athens for "provocative" violations…
ANKARA/RIYADH (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday in the first high-level visit in years which he hopes will herald a new era of relations…
April 27 (Reuters) - Russia's top lawmaker on Wednesday said gas giant Gazprom had made the right decision in fully suspending gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland and said Moscow should do…
SARAJEVO, April 23 (Reuters) - One person was killed and several injured after a magnitude 5.6 quake hit southern Bosnia on Friday night followed by a series of smaller aftershocks,…
A woman picks hand decorated Easter eggs at a farmers market in Belgrade, Serbia, 22 April 2022. The Orthodox Christian world will celebrate Easter Day on 24 April, according to…
SARAJEVO, April 20 (Reuters) - Serbian government said on Wednesday it has restricted the quantities of wheat, corn, flour and cooking oil slated for export to confront risks of market disturbances caused…
Balkan nations in southeast Europe are turning to coal as they try to tackle a global surge in energy prices, raising fears among environmentalists that countries are rowing back on…