Balkans

A surge in cyberattacks, particularly phishing and ransomware, has left Balkan countries to improve their defences against cybercrime, BIRN research shows. The Balkan region has witnessed a significant increase in internet penetration and the integration of Biometrics and Digital Identity BDI technologies into various sectors, BIRN research shows. Between 2020 …

With Recep Tayyip Erdogan securing another five years in power, the Turkish president is seeking to increase Turkiye’s influence in the Balkans — a region that was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries. Spiking tensions in northern Kosovo present such an opportunity. Although southeastern Europe remains firmly in America’s …

Behind the EU’s ‘historic’ migration pact lurks a policy to further outsource asylum procedures and loosen the definition of ‘safe’ third countries, experts warn. Refugees, and the Western Balkans, both stand to lose out. When interior ministers of the 27 European Union member countries met on Thursday, June 8, to …

The long-standing mayor of Struga is the first politician from North Macedonia’s ruling alliance to be put on a US black list of people linked to corruption – although his concrete wrongdoings remain unclear.Merko was designated uneligable to enter the United States, “due to his involvement in significant corruption”, the …

Serbia is already seeing an erosion of civil rights and liberties, democracy and the rule of law – and many fear the rapidly expanding use of advanced technologies will be directed against them rather than criminals and terrorists. The emergence of digital surveillance performed by state actors coincides with the …

The surveillance scandal made headlines but did not hurt the Greek government at the ballot box. Experts say this reflects a general ambivalence about privacy violations in the digital era. Whatever information Thanasis Koukakis had been sharing with his readers, it was not quite enough. Someone wanted more. Twice in …

In 2022, the EU announced plans to fund a new detention unit within the grounds of a Temporary Reception Centre near Bosnia’s north-western border with Croatia. In recent months, however, significant confusion and controversy has emerged surrounding the centre. In November 2022, the EU’s Neighbourhood and Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi …

Statements by officials in Belgrade, Pristina, and in the West are full of demands to calm the tension in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, even though political and security moves are being made on the ground that go beyond the wildest ideas of “masterminds” from the Surrealist Top List …

The surveillance scandal made headlines but did not hurt the Greek government at the ballot box. Experts say this reflects a general ambivalence about privacy violations in the digital era.Whatever information Thanasis Koukakis had been sharing with his readers, it was not quite enough. Someone wanted more. Twice in the …

The cancellation of a joint meeting between the two governments due to the tense situation in Kosovo’s Serb-majority north has further damaged already frayed relations between Albin Kurti and Edi Rama.The final steps to organize the ninth annual joint meeting between Kosovo’s and Albania’s governments were still being taken late …