Balkans

Police and prosecutors in Kosovo are struggling to solve violent crimes, particularly when they occur in a northern pocket of the country populated mainly by Serbs, according to a BIRN analysis of crime data illustrated in an interactive map. Violent crime in Kosovo frequently goes unpunished, particularly in the Serb-majority …

On 29 December 2022, the blockade in Jarinje and Bernjak crossing points in the North Kosovo region1 bordering Serbia ended after 19 days, following lengthy negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo with assistance from the European Union (EU) and the United States. However, the uneasy peace remains a cause for concern, …

Serbia is poised to cut the minimum age of criminal responsibility after a 13-year-old went on a shooting spree in a Belgrade school, reaching for the kind of ‘tougher punishment’ response it has deployed before. Studies, however, raise doubts about the deterrent effect. When, in the hours that followed an …

Months after government servers were hit by sophisticated cyber-attacks, questions remain over Montenegro’s readiness to confront the next inevitable assault, experts say. First they blamed Russia, then a gang called Cuba Ransomware. Months later, authorities in Montenegro still have no definitive answer as to who was behind “unprecedented” cyber-attacks in …

There is the real prospect of the pro-Russian nationalist-populist Robert Fico returning to power after the September election. Slovakia is set for its third government in as many years after Eduard Heger stepped down as prime minister on Sunday. Even though the full details of the interim technocratic government that …

Middle Eastern battlegrounds are alive and kicking even though rivals seek to balance contentious relations. Take efforts by the United Arab Emirates, and more recently Saudi Arabia, to bring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in from the cold in a bid to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran and address …

Kosovo has recorded stable economic progress while reducing the poverty rate and increasing per capita income, according to The World Bank, which approved the new Country Partnership Framework for the fiscal years 2023-2037. The World Bank found an increase of nearly 50% in per capita income and a 35% reduction …

The separatist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has called on Turkish citizens to vote for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in next Sunday’s election, saying his persistence and patriotism have turned Turkey into ‘a progressive and modern country’. Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, one of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s two autonomous entities, threw …

In the Republic of Albania the next local elections are scheduled to take place on 14 May 2023. The last local elections, which were held on 30 June 2019, were boycotted by the opposition, while the turnout at the elections was only 21.6%. As a result, all positions in local …

With 508 votes in favour and 76 against, MEPs adopted Vladimir Bilcik’s report on Serbia at the plenary session. After today’s vote, the report becomes the official resolution of the European Parliament on Serbia, reports the portal European Western Balkans (EWB). The integral text of the resolution included an oral …