The mayor of Bucharest urged foreign investors to become involved in public-private partnerships to carry out renovation plans for Romania's capital. UNDP-backed renovation projects include infrastructure improvements, new parking lots, building a subway, and improving the environmental conditions, and are expected to begin later this summer. [full article]

In older news (May'06), plans and project have been made for a modernisation of Albania's main Adriatic port Durres, "up to European standards." [full article]

During the Kosovo talks earlier this month also the matter of cultural and religious sites in Kosovo has been discussed. Serbian demands for larger protection zones around Orthodox monuments have been declined by the Kosovo-Albanian side. [full article here]

Plans for the demolition of a Roma quarter in Sofia have gone all the way to the European Human Rights Court at Strasbourg. The conflict over the demolition erupted just days before Bulgaria was due to take over the presidency of "The Decade of Roma Inclusion". [read the full article at BIRN]

E-Urbs, a fairly new EU-funded "European Master in Comparative Urban Studies" is now inviting applications. Deadline: July 31, 2006.

SEtimes.com ran an article about how an EU project for all 85 Macedonian municipalities has improved urban planning on the local (self-governmental) level. Over the past two years, regional training centres for municipal staff have been established in Skopje, Gostivar, Bitola and Stip.