Balkans

Voters in Kosovo will go to the polling stations in February 14 to elect a new parliament with – as in past elections – the candidates running for the post of Prime Minister in the spotlight.

A 100 million-euro recapitalisation of Serbia’s national airline, Air Serbia, is just the latest injection of taxpayer funds into the struggling company. But how many Serbian citizens know it?

A Biden administration initiative to centralise power at state level in Bosnia – while decentralising it at local level – will not necessarily bring any more stability and inclusion to the country. With a change to the US administration in sight, discussions about expected changes in Washington’s policy towards the …

Kosovo must make use of a new, more sympathetic, administration to leverage US support on core issues affecting its security, legitimacy and energy supply. With Joe Biden now inaugurated as US president, Kosovo has four years to leverage assured support. Biden has more foreign policy experience than any other recent …

The prosecution file in a case of alleged electoral fraud in a remote Albanian region in 2016 lays bare an industrial-scale campaign of vote-buying and intimidation up and down the ranks of the country’s ruling Socialist Party. As yet, no one has faced justice.

Ankara and Athens, starting in 2002, held 60 rounds of talks before their exploratory efforts came to a halt in 2016. After a five-year-long pause the rivals agreed to resume talks on January 25, starting the 61st round. “The idea that a strategic — so-called strategic — partner of ours …

Greece and France have sealed a $2.8 billion deal for the purchase of 18 Rafale fighter jets for the Greek air force. The deal is part of a larger weapons purchase program that Greece is carrying out as it sits down to negotiate a solution to a growing dispute with …

Greece and Turkey have started a new round of exploratory talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul to settle a long-running dispute over energy exploration and territorial rights in the eastern Mediterranean. The dialog was held following a five-year hiatus on Monday, after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu invited Greece …

Greece has restarted an agreement to send any refugees who arrive on Greek lands back to Turkey reports North Press. Greece recently re-activated the EU-Turkey statement of Mar, 18, 2016, which provides for the deportation of any illegal migrant or refugee from its lands to Turkey.

Bosnia lags behind the rest of the Western Balkans in terms of its strategy on countering terrorism, particularly how to handle fighters returning from foreign wars. Trailing its Western Balkan peers, Bosnia has yet to prepare a report on the implementation of its five-year counter-terrorism strategy, which expired in late …