Balkan News

BIRN database of official vehicles in Bosnia shows that while most top politicians have secured themselves costly officials cars, the Bosnian Serb President rides the priciest of them all.

Unqualified but politically-connected candidates are still being picked for senior positions in Kosovo’s public sector.

Macedonia's ruling parties have launched talks with their opposition counterparts in a final attempt to persuade them to support the 'name' agreement with Greece in parliament and avoid early elections.

Bulgarian Defense Ministry sees nothing wrong in its decision to award a 96-year-old former 'legionnaire' and World War II fighter, despite Jewish organisations in Bulgaria saying it glorified 'people with a Nazi past and present'.

Protesters have denounced the revamp of a much-loved square dedicated to victims of fascism in Zagreb as a 'total fraud' and an insult to the memory of famed sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, whose 1930s pavilion occupies the middle area.

The search for the remaining missing persons from the wars in the former Yugoslavia is still being hindered by politics, a BIRN conference on regional cooperation and post-conflict justice was told.

The Croatian PM's latest patronising comment to a female TV reporter – for which he has apologised – reflects a long tradition of Balkan politicians making sexist remarks to women journalists.

The effective loss of the European enlargement perspective is having highly negative effects across the Balkans – from Kosovo to Macedonia and now Bosnia.

Costa Rican police on Wednesday arrested a former Romanian minister and a former organized crime chief prosecutor who have been sentenced to jail back home - but in the absense of an extradition treaty, their rendition to Romania remains unclear. 

Russia cannot veto any agreement between Macedonia and Greece within the UN Security Council, the Macedonian government said – after Moscow pronounced the current deal 'dead', and said any future settlement should be referred to the Security Council.

Mobilizing the country against gay rights in a ‘family referendum’ has come as a very welcome diversion for an embattled political class facing accusations of corruption.

Experts warn that children are being used as ‘props’ in the campaign for Bosnia’s October 7 election.

A long-brewing struggle within the Croatian Democratic Union between the centre and the right appears to be reaching crunch point – which some say must involve new snap elections.

The social media giant has removed a network of pages, with millions of followers, tied to the Knights Templar International, a ‘Christian militant’ organisation active in the Balkans.

The reported departure of at least one minister is seen as a sign of major rifts in the ruling coalition, in which several powerful factions are fighting for domination.

Cooperation on war crimes cases between prosecutors’ offices in former Yugoslav countries happens rarely despite agreements between the states, said participants at a major regional conference organised by BIRN.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have urged their Macedonian sister party, VMRO DPMNE, to support the Greek deal in parliament – which it has so far opposed –  or risk isolating Macedonia from Europe.

Croatian and Hungarian ministers met on Tuesday to discuss joint energy plans under which Hungary will receive gas supplies from Croatia's planned LNG terminal on Krk island.

Press freedom suffers a new setback in Moldova, where the ruling Democratic Party has banned opposition TV station on the grounds of their 'biased' reports.

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told MEPs on Wednesday that alleged threats to the rule of law in the country were 'fake news', urged Europe to 'trust Romania' – and said ordinary Romanians 'loved' her government.