Balkan News

Closing statements are beginning in the case against former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic, as his four-and-a-half year trial for genocide and war crimes moves closer to its conclusion.

Despite astounding revelations of corruption and malpractice, Macedonia’s two ruling parties are likely to win the early elections in December for a combination of reasons.

Bullied or bought off, trade unions in Serbia and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia have hit rock bottom, failing the workers they claim to protect.

A Hungarian ministerial decision that the country's diplomats should ignore Romania’s National Day celebrations on December 1 - because they mark Hungary's loss of Transylvania - has breathed new life into an old dispute.

Finding themselves in a minority for the first time since the 1995 massacre on the assembly of the town in eastern Bosnia, the main Bosnian Muslim party, the SDA, has failed to select a vice-president of the assembly.

After accusations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, brutal detentions and a punishing siege, lawyers in the four-year trial of Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic begin to present their closing arguments next week.

Top former and current officials in the Kosovo Tax Administration have admitted the extent of political influences on their work to BIRN Kosovo's TV show.

Tensions surrounding national and local elections say much about the state of democracy across the Balkans. But when senior European officials visit the region to lend support to proven authoritarian rulers, democracy campaigners can only look on in bewilderment. Read about this and much more in this week’s Premium Highlights. 

Only Cannabis: about half of Albania’s GDP and with the other crime business and money laundering: 75-90 % of Albania’s GDP   „I pay the police 20%. Everybody has to pay. If you don’t pay they will take you to jail,“ he says. BBC: SHQIPËRIA PRODHUESI MË I MADH I KANABISIT, 20% E MERR POLICIA Europe’s outdoor cannabis capital By Linda Pressly BBC News, Albania 1 December 2016 From the section Magazine   Albania has become the largest producer of outdoor-grown cannabis in Europe. The potent plant has been described as „green gold“ for struggling farmers. In a poor nation, it’s a billion-euro industry. Off a dirt road, in a […]

Ivica Dacic, Serbian foreign minister, said he ‘might have made a mistake’ when he walked out of a joint meeting of Visegrad Group and Western Balkan countries in Warsaw.

Bulgaria’s absorption of 160 million euros of EU funds for management of the refugee crisis is endangered by the country's political instability and by issues to do with public procurements, a minister warned.

Wartime Sarajevo-based correspondent Kevin Sullivan’s new novel The Longest Winter tries to reflect the humanity and courage of people living in the Bosnian capital during the 1992-95 siege.

Montenegrin crime reporter Jovo Martinovic has pleaded not guilty to drugs smuggling charges, calling the indictment against him contradictory and unclear.

The ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, reportedly plans to reject the 2017 city budget proposed by Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic - and so start the process of removing him from his post.

The new Serb mayor of Srebrenica, the town notorious for the 1995 massacres of Bosniaks, said he has been invited to the 65th National Prayer Breakfast hosted by the US Congress and attended by Donald Trump.

GERB’s sudden withdrawal of support from its former coalition partner has dampened the hopes of the nationalist Patriotic Front of forming the next government.

Sharp falls in Croatian imports from Russia worry few experts in Zagreb - who in any case blame falling energy prices and changes in currency exchange rates as well as tit-for-tat sanctions and political feuds.

Swing voters and habitual abstainers together make up a whopping 30 to 40 per cent of Macedonia’s electorate, so whoever can mobilize them will win in December, experts believe.

Experts and journalists say the decision of another Kosovo court to hold a high-profile corruption trial behind closed doors will further damage people's trust in the judiciary.

Alles Betrug, wie die hohen Milliarden auch für Reise und Konferenz Tourismus rund um den Klime Schutz, ein Al Gore Geschäft mit dem korrupten BMZ, schon unter Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul. Vollkommen korrupt hat viele Namen nicht nur Ulla Schmidt bei der SPD, sondern auch Leute wie Steinmeier, Gernot Erler, Verheugen, Steinbrück usw.. Geld Diebstahl, in Milliarden Höhe, durch die Luxus Reise Truppe, der Parteibuch Hofschranzen der Politik mit der Entwicklungshilfe, einem Mafiösen Selbst Darstellungs Spektakel. SPD Lehrerin mit dem aauch lt. wikileaks, grössten Gangster von Albanien: Lefter Koka! Finanziert die dümmsten und kriminellsten Aufforstungs Projekte der Welt. Carl Bildt, die Massenmorde im Süd Sudan mit Lundin Öl