Balkans

Elsewhere, Polish parties try to outdo each other over child handouts; the media is in the headlines in Czechia; and Slovakia’s new technocratic government gets to work. Afact-finding delegation of the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee left Budapest this week with concerns that the Hungarian government is not doing enough …

A leaked proposal by Hungary’s MVM Group that would see Serbia cede much of its hydropower resources has been seized on by the Serbian opposition and energy experts as another damaging consequence of the close ties between the countries’ leaders. Energy experts and opposition politicians in Serbia are accusing the …

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the Arab League summit on May 19 surprised observers around the world. In Jeddah, Zelenskyy fervently petitioned the Gulf countries to support Ukraine, the invaded, and not Russia, the invader. His visit was timely — so far neither Kyiv nor the West has been …

Greece was the first country from the region that joined the EUGreece was the first country from the region that joined the European Union. Namely, Greece became and EU member in 1981, a member of the Schengen Zone in 1992, and it joined the Eurozone in 2001. Greece has been …

At the end of April, the 2022 population census of the Republic of Serbia was published, which revealed that the number of Croats in that country has drastically decreased in the past decade. According to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics, 39,107 Croats lived in Serbia last year, …

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 …