Balkans

Governments in Montenegro have controlled elections for decades, so the fact that Milo Djukanovic still lost speaks of the enormous desire for change among the country’s citizens.

The Belgrade-Pristina dialogue will have maximum effect if Serbia and Kosovo’s governments commit to credibly investigating the remaining cases of missing persons from the Kosovo conflict while building on existing processes for regional cooperation.

Kosovo has paid a price for the agreement brokered by the US President in which it has been reclassified as a ‘Muslim state’.

Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbia is a revanchist regime trying to remake the balance of power in the Western Balkans. And for the moment, Vucic has a free hand to do as he pleases.

The EU has brokered dozens of deals between Serbia and Kosovo, but implementation is missing. It’s time to create a monitoring mechanism.

The options for Russian intervention seem unpalatable, but there are worrying signs that some in Putin’s circle feel it may be a regrettable necessity.

Kosovo Liberation Army veterans are calling for the abolition of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a Hague-based war crimes court set up to try former guerrillas – but the country’s main political parties refuse to openly back the initiative.

A lack of political consensus in Kosovo on its talks with Serbia is hurting prospects of a deal being reached that would settle relations between the two.

The absence of pro-EU opposition parties from the Serbian legislature for the first time in two decades testifies to long-term trends in the country that have worrying implications.

The European Union is again taking the lead role in mediating between Serbia and Kosovo after a planned Washington meeting came to nothing – and that means the idea of resolving the problem with a land swap is unlikely to resurface soon.