Serbia
China
Xi challenges a divided Europe
After the May 5-9 visit of President Xi Jinping to Europe most of the political analysts in Brussels who argued that the Chinese President's...
Transport
The Schengen Zone expands conditionally, for air and sea travelers
Europe’s passport-free Schengen Zone took an important step forward on March 31 with the partial inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria. Travelers arriving in the...
Economy & Business
New US actions against corruption and Russian malign influence in the Western Balkans
On November 16, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known by its acronym OFAC, designated eight individuals and six...
Kosovo
Serb boycotts, protests trigger new unrest in Kosovo
The latest cycle of unrest in Kosovo, a direct result of Serbian interference in Kosovo’s April 23 municipal elections, exploded into violence on May...
Op-Eds & Guest Contributors
Voluntary prisoners of history
By now it should have been clear to everyone that we are contemporaries of another - I would say, 'revolutionary' - transformation of humanity....
Kosovo
Latest Kosovo unrest less than meets the eye
Most observers of Balkan developments will agree that a Kosovo crisis of various flavors seems to emerge with some regularity around the holiday season...
Albania
EU Tirana Summit: Enlargement must go on
The summit's generic one size fits all “membership perspective” statement was seen as good news by most after the topic of EU Enlargement had become a highly controversial subject.
Bulgaria
Schengen Zone tremblors center on Bulgaria and Romania
The Netherlands announced on December 2 that it will accept Romania and Croatia's joining the EU’s special passport-free Schengen Zone but intended to block...
Refugees & Migration
Unexpected migration woes
Brussels has, in the case of the migrant problem, proven that the EU's feckless bureaucrats are persuasive only when they carry a big stick against those that openly mock them.
Albania
Scholz’s Berlin Process Summit yields agreements, draws yawns
The November 3 Berlin Process Summit, held in the presence of six Western Balkan leaders and key EU luminaries in the context of the...
Bulgaria
Sofia and Skopje begin joint effort to resolve conflict
Hoping to generate enough material to prevent Sofia’s cadre of Balkan reporters from decamping to nearby ski resorts, the governments of North Macedonia and...
Albania
Conflict in Ukraine and Kosovo are connected
Vladimir Putin claims that protecting ethnic Russians justifies military action against Ukraine. Putin’s concern for Ukraine’s Russian minority is bombastic. His greater global goal...
Archive
Serbia, Rosatom ink deal to build a Center for Nuclear Science and Technology in Serbia
The Serbian government and Russia’s state atomic corporation Rosatom signed a General Framework Agreement to construct a Center for Nuclear Science and Technology (CNST)...
Afghanistan
Athens rocked by Biden’s nomination of political operative
After an extended period of uncertainty over who would be tapped, on October 8 US President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate influential...
Albania
Kosovo-Serbia tensions fading after deal reached
The slow-motion crisis between Kosovo and Serbia over automobile license plates that began with little notice on September 20 escalated into a tense show...
Analysis
Germany and its neo-imperial quest in Bosnia
When rumors first began to swirl in January about the possible appointment of Christian Schmidt as Europe's High Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, I...
Archive
Air pollution from Balkan coal plants kills around 19,000 people, study finds
Around 19,000 people are estimated to have died over the past three years as a result of air pollution from Western Balkan coal-fired power...
Afghanistan
On 9/11, it’s time for a reckoning and reflection of decades of failed US national security policy
A reckoning with America’s failed national security policy is long overdue.Our calamitous misadventures in the Middle East and the global financial collapse of 2008...
Analysis
How can Ukraine vanquish Russia on the theocracy chessboard?
Granting Autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2019 not only had a strong impact on Ukrainian society's rethinking of traditional religious symbols -...
Analysis
Is the EU learning any lessons from the pandemic?
The European Union - a powerful force for good or a self-serving bureaucratic oligarchy? Whatever your view, the EU is certainly a catalyst for...
Afghanistan
When the “New Middle East” meets the “New Europe”
Middle Eastern experts have commented widely on the “new” foreign policy of the United Arab Emirates. Many of these same commentators have gone so...
Archive
Interview with Ivica Dacic, Speaker of the Serbian Parliament
Where was Serbia in regards to its European path before 2008?
Then, as now, our desire and readiness for accelerated accession to the European Union...
Archive
Charged up EU takes on China in battery battle
BRATISLAVA - The European Union has attracted massive investment along the battery value chain, boosting its energy and raw materials independence, as the EU...
Albania
EU enlargement: Cui bono?
EU enlargement: cui bono? Several Foreign Ministers from EU countries visited Tirana and the North Macedonian capital Skopje in the last weeks to meet local...
Albania
Washington gets tough on “destabilizers” in the Western Balkans
On June 8, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) intended to update US sanctions policy regarding Balkan corruption and political destabilization activities,...
Archive
EBRD and GCF plan new $1 bln facility targeting high-emitting industries in private sector
Scaling up green financing, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) President Odile Renaud-Basso and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Executive Director Yannick Glemarec...
Albania
Why is the Rama government going soft on Hamas?
To date, the violations of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) debated in Tirana and Brussels were related to business issues. The SAA, the...
Albania
Mid-East turmoil eclipses Greece’s latest Balkan initiatives
Greek officials found time to engage in several rounds of Balkan diplomacy this week, once again taking advantage of the presence in Greece of...
Albania
COVID-19 vaccine supplies trickle into Southeast Europe
In line with global trends, deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine supplies to Southeast Europe increased in April, but the record to-date shows it was anything...
Analysis
The soft power of big business in a former Soviet republic
The increasing isolation of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko’s regime on the international stage raises important questions about the future of the country’s economy. As...
Albania
Slovenia provokes with non-paper supporting Balkan partitions
A non-paper purported to be of Slovenian authorship has drawn increasing attention over the last weeks that it has been circulating because it appears...
Albania
Southeast Europe begins to tackle COVID-19 immunization delays
In terms of Covid-19 vaccinations, the gap between Europe’s haves and have nots finally appears to be narrowing, after many months where much of...
Albania
Dialogue for mutual recognition will succeed when the EU joins the US in its Kosovo approach
After the snap parliamentary elections of February 14, Kosovo has a new government facing the EU's facilitated dialogue with Serbia for normalization of relations...
Albania
The process or the result: The need to revisit the Western Balkans’ EU integration process.
During the 2005 general election campaign, a senior opposition figure stated that in the event of his party winning, Albania would join the European...
Archive
A Bridge Not Too Far: Connecting Serbia-Greece-Cyprus
Focusing on close ties, the foreign ministers of Greece, Serbia and Cyprus discussed new opportunities for greater cooperation in energy, transport and tourism as...
Albania
Serbia becomes regional vaccination hub
Thousands of people from neighboring countries flocked to Serbia over the past couple of weekends to get their vaccine shots as Belgrade dispensed free...
Archive
Kosovo opens its Jerusalem embassy, defying Erdogan
Kosovo formally established diplomatic relations with Israel on February 1, a connection that was brokered by American diplomats in the closing months of the...
Africa
EBRD and Green Climate Fund extend green programme that spans 3 continents
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on March 11 the bank approved additional headroom for the next phase of its successful...
Albania
Serbia donates vaccines and spreads goodwill in the region
Over the past few weeks, Serbia has donated thousands of much-needed batches of vaccines to the countries, spreading goodwill as well as a sense...
Belgium
No human rights without the right to know
Access to information legislation was first seen in Sweden in 1766, with parliamentary interest to access information held by King Adolf Frederick. Finland followed...
Archive
Is Turkey undermining the Washington Agreement?
In a deal brokered during the closing months of the presidency of Donald Trump, Kosovo and Israel agreed to establish diplomatic relations as part...
Archive
Development Finance Corporation’s first overseas office sparks controversy
A controversy has erupted in Washington over a Trump-era plan to establish the first overseas office of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC),...
Archive
EU launches Secretariat to help coal regions in transition in Western Balkans and Ukraine
The European Commission has launched the Secretariat of a new initiative to help coal regions in the Western Balkans and Ukraine transition away from...
Analysis
Kosovo elections chart a path for reform and regional stability
Kosovo’s February 14 election, the sixth for the country in 14 years, landed the opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party in first place with 48 percent...
Albania
Serbia leading Southeast Europe in COVID-19 immunizations
According to the most recent data, Serbia’s COVID-19 vaccination program, initially using a Chinese vaccine and symbolic quantities from third country suppliers, now leads...
Albania
An advocacy for giving precedence to the EU’s Copenhagen Criteria in the Western Balkans
Among the precious little remaining friends of a quick EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans, the threat of non-friendly powers encroaching in the region...
Analysis
Kosovo and Israel establish diplomatic relations
Kosovo and Israel signed an agreement on February 1 to establish diplomatic relations in a deal brokered in the closing months of the presidency...
Albania
Karl von Habsburg: Speech on the future of Europe
The following speech was given on January 11 to honor the 60th birthday of Karl von Habsburg, the head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine...
Albania
Montenegro’s parliament passes crucial religion law, but who’s really in charge?
The Montenegrin parliament, in a repeat vote, passed on January 20 a crucial Law on Religious Freedoms which President Milo Djukanovic refused to sign...
Albania
Out in the cold: SE Europe in dire need of vaccine supplies
With the COVID-19 pandemic steadily worsening across much of Europe, the citizens of the continent’s Southeast European region have been left out of much...
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