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The Regions This Week
February 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Southeast Europe
Officials from Greece and Turkey had an angry exchange after a Turkish coast guard patrol vessel rammed a Greek coastguard boat in the Aegean. The crash occurred close to the islands known as Imia in Greek and Kardak in Turkish, which are claimed by both countries and are a source of continuing conflict.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said he
wants Croatia to enter the EU’s “inner circle”. Croatia, which will hold the rotating EU Council presidency in the first half of 2020, hopes to join the Schengen zone by that date and is also aiming for eurozone membership.
The IMF disbursed the long-delayed second tranche of its loan to Bosnia. The fund disbursed €74.55mn after its three-year loan deal was unfrozen when Sarajevo finally made progress with promised reforms.
A new direct cargo train, called Sava Express, will start operating between Slovenia and Serbia, likely from the beginning of March, as agreed by railway operators from the region. The new cargo train will ease the goods transport across the Western Balkans, not only between Serbia and Slovenia, because Serbia is a regional transport hub, while Slovenia is a gateway toward Central Europe and EU countries.
Montenegro’s agriculture ministry plans to issue grants for new vineyards and to develop viticulture in the country. Tiny Montenegro has
a long tradition of wine growing although the volumes produced are relatively small; with the exception of Plantaže, one of the country’s largest companies, production is mainly small scale.
Macedonia proposed a new law on public pro- curement which is aimed at preventing cor- ruption, and will be in line with EU regulations. Macedonia's public procurement processes have been hit by scandals over the years.
Negotiators reported progress towards the settlement of the frozen Transnistria conflict
in Moldova. Officials from Moldova and the breakaway republic said progress has been made recently in four key areas after a raft of deals were signed in November.
Two Kosovan police officers were briefly detained on suspicion of hiding evidence in connection with the murder of Kosovan Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic. The officers are reportedly suspected of removing a shell casing from the murder scene, and later failing to turn it in along with other evidence.
Serbia’s so-called “sugar king” Miodrag Kostic said he plans to acquire part of Croatia’s troubled food and retail giant Agrokor. Kostic has been expending his business across the region for a couple of years, mainly in the tourist sector so far, but Agrokor companies would fit with the agribusiness side of his empire.
China Shandong International and Technical Cooperation is expected to get the concession to build a new highway in Bosnia. The new road between Banja Luka and Prijedor will cut the distance travelled by about 10km and enable speeds of up to 120km/h.
The US State Department banned Albania’s former general prosecutor from entering the US due to his suspected involvement in “significant corruption”. Adriatik Llalla, his wife and two of his children have all been banned from travelling to the country.
The Turkish government’s central budget posted a surplus of TRY1.7bn (€361mn) in the first month of the year, representing a significant decline compared to TRY11.4bn worth of surplus in Janu- ary 2017, Finance Minister Naci Agbal announced. The Turkish government targets a budget deficit of TRY65.9bn, or 1.9% of GDP, in 2018.