Balkans

En 2023, en quelques mois seulement, 604 000 signatures avaient été recueillies en faveur d’un référendum national sur le maintien de la monnaie nationale. 480 000 signatures ont été validées et, conformément à la loi sur la participation directe des citoyens aux organes du pouvoir public et à l’autonomie locale, …

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Sunday that police arrested 77 people after violence erupted in the wake of a mass protest in central Belgrade – while officials warned that further arrests could be imminent. Dacic told media that “criminal charges will be filed against 35, and a request …

Concern is growing over a cyber-security software deal between the Republika Srpska entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina and China’s ELINC, owned by a conglomerate sanctioned by the United States over alleged ties to China’s ‘military-industrial complex’. Bypassing regular public procurement procedures, the pro-Russian government of predominantly Serb-populated Republika Srpska signed …

The Republic of Serbia is undergoing a turbulent phase in its socio-political development. The collapse of the canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on 1 November 2024 marked the beginning of a wave of student protests and the blockade of higher education institutions across the country. Classes have been …

An in-depth interview with Luka Zanoni, editor-in-chief of OBCT, collected by the Bosnian portal Buka: from political developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina to the hypocrisy of EU policy towards South-Eastern Europe, passing through the student protests in Serbia as a possible turning point (Originally published by the web portal Buka …

A draft statute obtained by BIRN suggests Kosovo’s president will press ahead with a ‘presidential’ commission on Kosovo’s 1998-99 war, ignoring experts who say it risks being seen as ‘highly political’. Kosovo’s president is poised to launch a ‘transitional justice’ commission with a three-year mandate and the possibility of survivors …

Dodik’s refusal to abide by the court ruling, his renewed threats of secession and further severing of ties with the central state have created the worst crisis in Bosnia since the war, when some 100,000 people died. Bosniak Munira Dzabija, originally from Sarajevo, regularly visits the village of Omacina, where …

When a US lawyer, Martin De Luca, visited Bosnia’s Serb-led entity, Republika Srpska, in April, the entity’s publicly-funded media outlets reported that he was a member of a US administration team investigating the alleged misspending spending of funds by aid agency USAID in Bosnia and Herzegovina. De Luca himself said …

Kosovo continues to face significant obstacles on its path to EU membership. To move forward, Prishtina must revive its dialogue with Belgrade, while the union should provide a clear road map for easing its punitive measures against the country. Kosovo has lately ceased to generate angst-ridden headlines in international media. …

The situation remains very combustible and could easily explode at the slightest spark. Russia and the US rarely agree on much, but their top diplomats just sounded the alarm about Syria, which should convince objective observers that there’s credence to their warnings. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “The situation …