Macedonia issued a seven-year eurobond worth 450 million euros at a yield of 5.625 percent to finance budget needs this year and next, the finance ministry said late on Tuesday, shrugging off protests by the opposition. The joint lead managers on the issue were Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Erste Group and Societe Generale. In a statement, […]

The proposed judicial reform will help to improve the business environment because local and foreign investors often face corrupt or politically-influenced judges in property disputes, experts said. The currently-stalled judicial reform programme would have an indirect impact in boosting the country’s economic situation by giving more guarantees to investors, the executive director of Albania’s Centre […]

Romania’s prime minister is launching a national anti-corruption strategy in a bid to crack down on widespread corruption that plagues every walk of life in Romania. Premier Dacian Ciolos said Tuesday he was “thinking about ‘the gift’ we slip under the counter … the money we put in the medic’s pocket,” laying out the strategy […]

The European Parliament is warning Albanian politicians that failure to pass a judicial reform package will end the possibility of launching membership negotiations with the European Union soon. Knut Fleckenstein urged Albanian political leaders to vote later this week for the package, a key element in convincing Brussels to launch full membership talks with the […]

Romania’s Government aims to create a centralized public procurement system in Romania, according to the “Competitive Romania” country project, which was launched into public debate at the beginning of July. “The central procurement unit”, as the future institution is called in the document, would be responsible to carry out public procurement for the central administration. […]

Serbia took a step forward Monday in its bid to join the European Union, as the bloc launched membership negotiations with Belgrade in the key areas of justice and fundamental rights. The prospect of EU membership has been offered as an incentive for democratic and economic reforms in neighbouring countries, although disillusionment within the 28-member […]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday it has made significant progress in discussions regarding on a financial assistance programme for Moldova. “We have made significant progress in the negotiations of a new IMF program and our discussions with the authorities are well advanced. There are only a few issues that remain to be […]

Today, the European Commission has formally adopted a list of third countries having strategic deficiencies in their regimes on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering Terrorist Financing (CFT), including Bosnia and Herzegovina, announces the Delegation of the EU to BiH. This completes the package of stronger transparency rules to tackle terrorism financing and money laundering brought […]

Regional Anti-corruption Initiative (RAI), in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is implementing a Regional Programme titled „Southeast Europe Regional Programme on Strengthening the Capacity of Anti-corruption Authorities and Civil Society to Combat Corruption and Contribute to the UNCAC Review Process“, funded by the Austrian Development Agency. The Programme aims at […]

Government of Kosovo has launched an incentive to remove from office all those officials who have been alleged for their involvement in corruption affairs.       Government representatives say that fight against corruption and organized crime is becoming “tougher” and that engagement in this aspect is serious. “We have now raised the issue of removing […]