Balkan News

A claim in tycoon Miroslav Miskovic’s forthcoming book that he was promised by a former Serbian president that he would not be arrested for alleged corruption has triggered a public scandal.

Our selection of Premium articles this week comes with a special focus on Bosnia, all with an eye on upcoming national elections. We also look at other corners of the region, from Macedonia to Moldova. 

Lawyers and NGOs urged the Serbian parliament to call a halt to Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj’s term as an MP because he was convicted of wartime crimes by the UN court in The Hague.

Progress has been made in the Greece-Macedonia name talks, both countries’ Foreign Ministers said after a meeting in the Macedonian town of Ohrid, but the hardest issues remain to be solved.

The UN court in The Hague has extended former Serbian State Security Service chief Jovica Stanisic’s temporary release for treatment in Belgrade until August 30 because of his continuing illness.

Prosecutors in the Austrian city of Salzburg have indicted 14 Dinamo Zagreb fans – residents of Austria, Germany and Switzerland – for glorifying the Croatian WWII fascist Ustasa regime and giving Nazi salutes.

Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik announced that religious education will become part of the curriculum for high schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska from September.

After a 15-year hiatus, Serbia’s most important museum finally re-opens in June, and here are five artefacts that are not to missed. 

Name dispute talks between Greece and Macedonia are being held for the third time in a month on Thursday in the Macedonian town of Ohrid, amid shared optimism for an early breakthrough.

Macedonian legislators late Wednesday rejected the first no-confidence motion against the Social Democrats-led government of Zoran Zaev, which was tabled by the opposition.

Russian newspaper Argumenty and Fakty has started a Serbian edition, staffed by journalists from the nationalist weekly magazine Pecat and published by the same company.

Romania’s government has angered the country’s leading academics after deciding to cut funds for top universities that criticised cabinet policies.

Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj was found guilty, but will serve no sentence - a suitably compromised end to a trial that was catastrophically mismanaged by the Hague war crimes court.

There was dissatisfaction in Sarajevo and Zagreb after Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj was convicted of wartime crimes in Serbia but cleared of wrongdoing in Bosnia and Croatia.

The UN court in The Hague partially overturned Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj’s acquittal on appeal and jailed him for 10 years for wartime crimes in Serbia - although he will not serve any prison time.

The Council of Europe warned Romania in a new report that controversial changes to its justice laws threaten prosecutors and judges’ independence as well as the fight against corruption.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia added 190,000 jobs last year but economic growth declined, says the World Bank’s latest report on the Western Balkans.

Most countries in the Balkans declined in terms of democratic liberties last year, says Freedom House’s annual ‘Nations in Transit’ report, which also criticised Serbia and Montenegro’s leaders for centralising control.

Activists rallied in Sofia to highlight concerns about development plans for the Pirin Mountain National Park as EU environmental ministers gathered for an informal summit in Sofia.

Former policeman Milan Gavrilovic was cleared on appeal of committing inhumane acts against non-Serb prisoners who were being transported between detention camps in the Prijedor area in 1992.