Balkans

The fence appeared in April. Topped with razor wire, it closed off Pishe Poro, a beach on Albania’s Adriatic coast that is part of the Vjosa-Narta Protected Landscape, an important stopover for migrating birds. At the site, covering more than 1.3 million square metres, a company called Zvernec South Adriatic …

After the unexpected resignation of the international administrator in Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt and the intensification of contacts between Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and the Kremlin and at the same time the entourage of US President Donald Trump, the situation in Bosnia from the postwar begins to resemble …

When the top international official overseeing the fragile peace agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina announced his resignation this week, analysts went into overdrive. Among other factors, many noted the public clashes between Christian Schmidt and Bosnian Serb separatist leader Milorad Dodik, who had never acknowledged his appointment and called him …

Sazan Island served as a naval base under Albania’s communist regime and remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence. To pave the way to granting it strategic investor status, Albania’s President Bajram Begaj earlier signed an urgent decree removing a military training zone from the Armed Forces deployment …

In North Macedonia, an enduring ethnic divide extends to conflicting interpretations of what actually happened during World War II. In villages above Tetovo and Gostivar, in the hills near North Macedonia’s northwestern border with Kosovo and Albania, scattered monuments reflect starkly differing interpretations of what went on in World War …

La ligne Budapest-Belgrade est la première section du projet de chemin de fer Budapest-Belgrade-Skopje-Athènes, un projet symbole de la coopération entre la Chine et l’Europe centre-orientale qui reliera la Hongrie, la Serbie, la Macédoine du Nord et le port du Pirée, géré par la Chine. L’opérateur ferroviaire serbe de transport …

A regularly heard concern is the profound demographic crisis. Many young people and their families have left, likely never to return. The population is rapidly aging. Whilst diaspora ties bring new hope and possibility, they cannot substitute for those living and breathing Bosnia and Herzegovina daily. Though some speak encouragingly …

A post‑Orbán reset is coming, but Péter Magyar’s nationalism tempers his pro‑EU signals; expect cooperation on Ukraine and security, and resistance on cultural and sovereignty issues. The Hungarian vote mattered far beyond Budapest: it would reshape EU unity on sanctions, funding, and enlargement; decide whether a NATO member remained a …

Territory, people, and physical power (security forces like police and army) are the inevitable prerequisites for creating a state. The ethnic Albanians were, at the beginning, intruders into the autonomous province of South-West Serbia – Kosovo-Metochia (KosMet), who constituted a small minority there (in 1455, only 2%). The focal question …

Such social and civic engagement is not new in Bosnia, historically. Throughout the modern history of Bosnia, there is a common thread of engagement on socioeconomic and institutional problems. Even before World War I, there was a history of Socialist political networks and movements. The 1990s war in Bosnia and …