Many observers point to the limited results of Bulgaria’s transitions to democracy, due to the persistent communist-era-method in governing of the country. These democratic shortcomings are observed not only because of the still strong power-hold of the former Bulgaria’s Communist Party, but also because of the often employed communist-era methods in exercising government authority. An example is certainly the case of government infringing the rights of Bulgaria’s Muslim community to elects its leadership. The latest case of these appalling governmental policies is the memo issued by the Minister of Education to the state employed teachers to decide on the ethnicity of their students without the knowledge of the students or their families.

Macedonia and Montenegro have expressed an interest in joining the rail alliance created by Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

Macedonia wants to join the alliance, created by the three former Yugoslav states 20 years after the dissolution of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to which they all belonged, according to General Manager of Macedonian Railways Oliver Derkovski.

According to reports from Banja Lukam today, Republica Srpska's PM Milorad Dodik said Bosnia-Herzegovina was increasingly showing its inability to survive.

Dodik heads the government of the Serb republic (RS). The post-war Bosnia is made up of this Serb entity, and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

Dodik accused international representatives in Bosnia for the state of Bosnia's affairs.

With influential Western media voicing alarm about Bucharest's drive to grant citizenship to Moldovans, the president of Romania has stepped forward to defuse concerns about potential flooding of EU labour markets.

"Let them have no worry, because most Moldovans who receive our citizenship stay in Romania," President Traian Basescu said. Acknowledging that around a million Moldovans are presently working in the EU, he said it was a "blood obligation" for Romanians to help them legalise their status.