Balkaninsight.com

Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska is staging a lavish celebration of its disputed ‘statehood’ holiday, defying a ban by the Constitutional Court.

A year of diverging narratives saw Bosnia’s communities pulling further apart - despite the submission of an application to joint the EU - while cultural life remained as vibrant as ever.

Would-be members queued up in Sofia to join former Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov's new party, 'Yes, Bulgaria!', which has vowed to take on Bulgaria's 'corrupt oligarchy'.

Most Balkan states will be slightly better off at the end of this year than they were at the beginning - despite the best efforts of the political class to keep tensions on the boil.

The choice of the next president could become a power struggle within the ruling coalition, which is also expected to name a candidate without seeking opposition backing.

In his verbal attacks on civil society groups in Macedonia, the leader of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party, Nikola Gruevski, has failed to mention that many of his closest associates and supporters were once affiliated to or senior members of the same NGOs, some media say.

Albanian parties in Macedonia on Saturday agreed their key conditions for participation in a future coalition government - in a move hailed by neighbouring Albania as 'historic'.

Defying Bosnia’s state authorities, the EU and US, the Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska is staging a lavish celebration of its disputed ‘statehood’ holiday, despite a ban by the Constitutional Court.

After a consumers' organisation warned that a popular tomato spread, lutenitsa, may contain a substance whose effects are like those of cannabis, predictable jokes have flooded social networks.

Former Kosovo premier Ramush Haradinaj said it was “sad” that France acted on a Serbian warrant to arrest him over war crimes charges, while top officials in Pristina demanded his release.

Opposition politicians, the President and many experts have expressed strong doubts about the credentials of Romania’s new ministerial team.

Kosovo’s Special Prosecution charged the suspect, reported to be a Serbian Roma, with committing war crimes in Fushe Kosove/Kosovo Polje in 1999, after his extradition from Bosnia.

Albanian politics had its hilarious moments in 2016, several of them featuring Prime Minister Edi Rama.

A troubled year saw relentless opposition attempts to bring down the government, fresh tensions with Kosovo Serbs and Serbia and controversy over an activist’s death in jail.

Ruling and opposition parties in Macedonia have exchanged accusations over who is to blame for the alarming levels of air pollution each winter in the country's urban centres.

Investigative reporter Jovo Martinovic has been released from detention ahead of his appearance in court on January 19 to answer drugs-smuggling charges, following a campaign by human rights organizations. 

Arms from at least 16 countries have flowed to paramilitary militias allied to the Iraqi government who have used them to commit serious human rights violations, rights group Amnesty International says.

A well-known Croatian producer of salami and other meat products, Georg ‘Djuro’ Gavrilovic, will go on trial at a Zagreb court in May for alleged war profiteering.

The brief information the Office of the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic has supplied about her latest visit to Washington has left the public pondering its purpose.

A Serbian court postponed to February its decision on the rehabilitation of WWII Chetnik commander Nikola Kalabic, who was declared a war criminal by the Yugoslav Communist authorities.