Balkan News

A new bloc of opposition parties, both from the centre-left and the far right, is toughening its stand on the Kosovo issue in what looks like an attempt to outflank the ruling Progressive Party.

After a bishop reopened the dispute between Serbia’s nationalist Church and the President over the Kosovo issue, experts say this is one fight the President could do without.

A rising number of refugees and migrants heading through Bosnia face dire conditions, their way forward blocked by heavy-handed Croatian police.

At the end of the political season, over a thousand people took to the streets of Sofia to protest against the government's lack of engagement with the needs of people with disabilites. 

Macedonians will have the chance to give their opinion about the historic ‘name’ agreement with neighbouring Greece on September 30, the country's parliament decided on Monday.

The opposition Democratic Party filed a motion to dismiss ultra-nationalist deputy parliament speaker Vjerica Radeta for insulting a prominent Srebrenica activist when she died a week ago.

Albania's Vetting Commission on Monday dismissed a High Court Judge, Shkelzen Selimi, citing his alleged links with organised crime.

A World Bank spending review commissioned by the government says Bulgaria is not getting as much as it should from the police, given the significant amount it spends on public order.

After Saturday's murder in Belgrade of the high-profile lawyer Dragoslav Ognjanovic, Serbia's Bar Association has called for a state commission to probe attacks on lawyers.

Croatia on Monday began work on construction of the Peljesac Bridge – despite fierce condemnation from Bosniak politicians in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A defence lawyer in the case against five former Bosniak soldiers accused of abusing Croat prisoners at a detention facility in the Vitez area in 1993 asked the Bosnian court for an acquittal verdict.

Finance Minister Eugen Teodorescu on Sunday night said he wanted to know why the tax agency had failed to collect allegedly unpaid dues from President Klaus Iohannis for years. 

The Serbian commission for examining the alleged effects on public health of NATO’s use of depleted uranium ammunition during the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia will start work in late August or early September, its chairman said.

Macedonia's parliament on Monday is expected to formally call for a referendum on the historic deal with Greece that should be held no later than September 30.

Despite numerous promises to clean house, Bulgaria’s justice system remains unwilling to investigate and prosecute corruption at the top administrative and political tiers.

Moldovan political analyst Igor Munteanu says Moscow is exploiting the ‘frozen’ conflict in breakaway Transnistria to determine Moldova’s fate – and deter it from its European path.

Kosovo’s largest public university has set up its own Transitional Justice Resource Centre and plans to offer lectures on conflict-related issues to students to allow them to explore strategies for truth and reconciliation.

One of the most famous musicians in the former Yugoslavia, Oliver Dragojevic, has died on Sunday at the age of 71.

Serbian lawyer Dragoslav Ognjanovic was shot dead on Saturday in front of his apartment in Belgrade.

The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre, an NGO, said Serbia seems to be stalling on the prosecution of war criminals – hoping 'time will do its work,' as witnesses and culprits pass away.