Macedonia pro-opposition rally staged against name deal

November 28, 2018

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Several thousand supporters of Macedonia's conservative opposition have marched through the capital Skopje to protest a proposed agreement with Greece to change the country's name to North Macedonia.

The conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, which governed between 2006 and 2016, renewed a demand Wednesday for an early election, arguing that the 18-month-old Social Democrat government was unable to deal with crises facing the country.

The protesters gathered outside the conservative party headquarters and marched past government buildings, chanting "Macedonia, Macedonia" and waving nationalist banners. VMRO-DPMNe party leader Hristijan Mickoski addressed the rally, which ended peacefully.

Resolving the decades-old name dispute with Greece would clear obstacles for Macedonia to join NATO.

Kosovo president: Decision to form army 'irreversible'

December 16, 2018

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — The decision to transform Kosovo's security force into an army is "irreversible," the country's president said Sunday while offering assurance that a new national military does not threaten ethnic Serbs living in the former Serbian province.

President Hashim Thaci gave a briefing on the army plan before he left for New York, where the United Nations Security Council is expected in coming days to discuss the small Balkan nation's decision.

Kosovo's parliament overwhelmingly approved the army's formation Friday. Neighboring Serbia has warned that an army in a place it considers Serbian territory could result in an armed intervention. "Whatever happens at the Security Council, despite the concerns of a certain individual or a country, the formation of the Kosovo army is an irreversible act," Thaci said.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence. Its government insists the army would violate a U.N. resolution that ended Serbia's crackdown on Kosovar separatists in 1998-1999. Serbia's government has warned it might use its own military to respond, with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic saying that's "one of the options on the table." An armed intervention by Serbia could bring a confrontation with the NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in Kosovo since 1999.

The U.N. Security Council held closed consultations late Friday on the format of a meeting on the dispute. Russia, Serbia's close ally, wants the council to meet publicly, and European nations have sought a closed session.

NATO's chief has called Kosovo's action "ill-timed." The United States has expressed support for "Kosovo's sovereign right" as an independent nation that unilaterally broke away from Serbia. Thaci said the army would be a professional and multiethnic one, with 5 percent of the troops coming from the ethnic Serb minority; He advised Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to take a cue from Serbs residents in Kosovo "who feel calm and who take part in the army."

Llazar Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.

Tensions soar in the Balkans over plans for Kosovo army

December 04, 2018

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia sought support from allies Russia and China on Tuesday in opposing the formation of a Kosovo army, warning that a military in its former province could lead to renewed clashes in the Balkans.

Kosovo's parliament is set to vote Dec. 14 on transforming the country's security forces into a regular army. Serbian officials claim the army would be used against the Serb minority in Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.

Serbia has threatened unspecified retaliatory measures if the army is created. Serbia, Russia and China don't recognize Kosovo as a country, while the United States and most of the West do. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met separately with the Russian, Chinese and U.S. ambassadors in Belgrade on Tuesday, saying that "continuous provocations" from Kosovo could leave Serbia with no choice but to "protect" the Serb minority.

Vucic said Kosovo's plans to form an army jeopardize peace and stability in the region. "The irresponsible behavior of Pristina could lead into a catastrophe because Serbia cannot peacefully watch the destruction of the Serbian people," Vucic said in a statement.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo soared after the Kosovo government last month introduced a 100-percent tax on Serb imports — an apparent retaliation for a failed Kosovo bid for membership in the international police organization, Interpol, after intense Serbian lobbying.

Vucic said it's "completely clear" that both the formation of the army and the tariffs are intended to "force Serbs out" of Kosovo. Kosovo split from Serbia after a 1998-99 war for independence that left more than 10,000 dead. Serbia's brutal crackdown in the province prompted NATO to launch airstrikes to stop the conflict.

An armed intervention by Serbia in Kosovo would trigger a direct clash with NATO-led peacekeepers stationed there. Serbia recently increased its saber-rattling, including raising the combat readiness of its troops over a series of small incidents.

Meanwhile, Kosovo police stopped a Serbian basketball team from entering the country. They were to attend a daily protest by Kosovo Serbs against the 100-percent tariffs on Serbian goods.

Llazar Semini contributed from Tirana, Albania.

Kosovo lawmakers occupy office over tax on Serbian imports

December 02, 2018

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Lawmakers representing Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority are refusing to leave the parliament building to protest a 100 percent tax on all goods imported from Serbia. Ten lawmakers from the Serb List party said on Sunday they would remain closed inside their Parliament office and express their concerns about the tax to the European Union's enlargement commissioner, Johannes Hahn. He is scheduled to visit Kosovo on Monday.

Kosovo's government imposed the tariff on Serbian imports last month and said it would stay in place until Serbia recognizes Kosovo's independence and stops preventing it from joining international organizations.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. The EU has said that normalized ties between the two are a condition for the countries to become members.

Italy slides into recession, darkening outlook for Europe

January 31, 2019

MILAN (AP) — Italy has fallen back into recession, intensifying concerns about the 19-country eurozone economy and a possible flare-up in the debt market jitters that haunted the bloc in recent years.

The Italian economy, the third-largest in the eurozone, contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, the national statistics agency said. Following a 0.1 percent drop in the previous three-month period that means Italy is in a technical recession, defined as two straight quarters of economic contraction — just four years after its last one.

Italy's recession is one reason why the wider eurozone slowed in 2018, along with uncertainties related to Brexit, the China-U.S. trade spat and new vehicle emissions standards. Though the eurozone is performing better than in the dark days of the debt crisis, which threatened to break up the euro currency, it's still lagging the U.S. economy, which is projected to have grown about 3 percent in 2018. As a result, unemployment in the eurozone is about double the U.S.'s 4 percent at 7.9 percent.

The eurozone economy as a whole grew by a meager 0.2 percent in the final quarter, the same as in the previous quarter, according to provisional figures released Thursday by the Eurostat statistics agency.

It expanded by 1.8 percent in 2018 overall, its weakest rate in four years. That's lower than had been anticipated a year ago, when the bloc was expected to slow only slightly from 2017's strong 2.4 percent rate.

The Italian economy has become an acute source of concern over the past few months, partly as a result of the new populist government's spat with the European Union's executive Commission over its budget plans, which has undermined business confidence and seen Italian borrowing rates in bond markets spike higher.

The government, elected against the backdrop of economic disappointment after years — even decades — of stagnant growth, wants to ramp up spending to get the economy going. It wants to provide more social security payments and to roll back a pension reform.

The plan means Italy would not reduce its debt load, which at over 130 percent is the highest in Europe after Greece. The EU Commission is still haunted by the memory of the debt crisis, which required eurozone governments, along with some assistance from the International Monetary Fund, to bailout a number of countries. The Commission has insisted that the Italian government rein back on its spending plans lest it loses control of its budget and the faith of bond market investors.

Though most economists think the budget impasse with the Commission has undermined confidence in the Italian economy, the country's premier, Giuseppe Conte, sought to downplay the recession and placed the blame firmly on the trade spat between the United States and China, which he says has weighed on Italian exports.

"This is a transitory factor," he told reporters in Rome. The head of Italy's UNC consumer advocate organization, Massimiliano Dona, said the weak figures raise questions over the Italian government's prediction that the economy will grow by 1 percent in 2019. He said that could mean the government will have to adjust its spending plans.

Italy hasn't been the only reason why the eurozone slowed in 2019. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, suffered an unexpected contraction in the third quarter largely due to changes in emissions standards that hurt auto sales. And uncertainty over Britain's exit from the EU has weighed on sentiment, as has the fear of a global trade war stoked largely by growing tensions between the United States and China.

Separate economic indicators point to further weakness at the start of 2019 and most economists expect a difficult period ahead if the main causes of uncertainty are not addressed soon. "The continued decline in sentiment indicates that the underlying pace of growth has slowed even further," said Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank. "Uncertainty about economic developments in China, the unresolved trade conflict between the U.S. and China and Brexit continue to weigh on the economic outlook for 2019."

Pylas reported from London.

Italy: 5 EU nations will take in migrants stranded at sea

January 29, 2019

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says five European Union nations are stepping forward to help resolve the latest impasse involving migrants stuck at sea on a humanitarian ship, but he bemoaned the lack of a systematic EU way to deal with migrant rescues.

Conte said Tuesday that the crisis over the Sea-Watch 3, which has been stuck off Sicily with 47 rescued migrants since Friday, demonstrates the EU's "incapacity to manage this phenomenon with shared European mechanisms." He spoke Tuesday in Cyprus at the close of a southern European summit.

But Conte said individual countries had stepped forward late Tuesday to say they would take some of the migrants. The Italian news agency ANSA, citing Conte, said the five countries are Germany, France, Portugal, Romania and Malta.

There was no immediate word on when or where the migrants, who were rescued Jan. 19 off the coast of Libya, would disembark. Conte was to meet with the leaders of Italy's two governing coalition parties, including hard-line Interior Minister Matteo Salvini of the League party, upon his return to Rome.

Italy's populist government has refused to allow humanitarian ships to dock in its ports in a bid to force its European partners to share the burden of arrivals. During the same press conference as Conte, French President Emmanuel Macron said France abided by three principals: respect for humanitarian rights in maritime matters, disembarkation at the nearest port and distributing the migrants. He said these standards should become a permanent mechanism.

Conte also said an EU trust fund aimed at propping up African economies to stem the flow of migrants isn't large enough. Echoing Conte, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said it's an "absolute necessity" for Europe to boost Africa's economic development.

The Dutch-flagged Sea Watch 3, which is operated by a German humanitarian group, was allowed into Italian waters late last week off the Sicilian port of Syracuse due to deteriorating weather conditions.

Human rights activists and some politicians have denounced Italy's refusal to allow the migrants to land as inhumane. "The psychological conditions of these people is worsening quickly. They need to get immediate medical attention on land," EU lawmaker Cecile Kyenge told Sky TG24.

Earlier Tuesday, Europe's human rights court denied a request by the head of the Sea Watch group, the Sea Watch 3's captain and one of the migrants to disembark the 47 migrants. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, however requested in its decision that Italy "take all necessary measures as soon as possible" to give the migrants adequate medical care, food, water and supplies. And it said the 15 unaccompanied minors on the boat should receive legal guardianship.

Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli claimed on Twitter that the human rights court had sided with Italy. "We must guarantee the migrants food, treatment and adequate assistance. And that is what we are doing. But we don't have an obligation to disembark," he said.

In another similar instance, Salvini faces possible charges for failing to allow 177 migrants to disembark at a port in Catania in August. Prosecutors have declined to press charges for kidnapping and abuse of office, saying Salvini was enacting government policy beyond the scope of the courts. But a judicial review body ruled otherwise, and has asked the Senate, where Salvini has a seat, to allow the case to procced.

The migrants in that case were allowed to disembark after five days.

Barry reported from Milan. Angela Charlton in Paris also contributed.

Italy sends socks, shoes, food to migrants stuck on boat

January 27, 2019

ROME (AP) — The Italian coast guard is bringing socks, shoes, bread and fruit to 47 migrants who have been stranded at sea for nine days aboard a German humanitarian group's rescue boat close to the Italian island of Sicily.

Italy's hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, refuses to let humanitarian boats that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean from smugglers' unseaworthy vessels disembark because he contends the aid facilitates trafficking.

Sea-Watch 3 rescued the migrants on Jan. 19 in the waters off Libya. On Sunday, three Italian opposition lawmakers and the mayor of nearby Syracuse boarded Sea-Watch3, which is a mile offshore, to inspect conditions.

Italian news agency ANSA quoted Syracuse prosecutor Fabio Scavone as saying the captain had requested psychological assistance for those aboard but added there wasn't any medical emergency.