EU enlargement advances as demands for accountability shape the Western Balkans

Dear readers, EU enlargement featured prominently on the agenda this week, from intergovernmental accession conferences to discussions among EU leaders at the European Council. Montenegro closed three more negotiating chapters, Albania closed another, and …

ICYMI: Shaheen Concludes Final CODEL as Ranking Member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee to Western Balkans

WASHINGTON – This week, U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senate Democratic Whip and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, concluded their October 6-13 …

Literary and Musical Evening in Vienna to Explore the Balkans

Writer Ilija Trojanow and the Wladigeroff Brothers will present an evening of literature and music exploring the Balkans in Vienna on Thursday, the Melange Bulgaren blog said. The event, titled Balkans: Images, Words and Sounds, will bring together music, …

Cuban boxer who crossed the Balkans on foot wins a WBC title in Europe

The Cuban boxer Ángel Raymond Morejón, known as "El Terrible," went from walking through the Balkan mountains at night after being turned away twice at the borders to winning an important belt from the World Boxing Council (WBC) in Europe. …

Radars in the Balkans to defend Italy too says Crosetto

Italy is set to install radars in the Balkans to defend those countries and Italy too, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said Wednesday.     "We are resuming command (of the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission) with General (Roberto) Vergori, and we do …

Albania’s wild heart on a 560-kilometre road trip through the Balkans

From communist-era bunkers and remote mountain villages to gin distilleries, wartime memorials and one of Europe’s last free-flowing rivers, Mark G Whitchurch explores Albania’s rugged interior behind the wheel of the latest Mazda CX-30 Ten hours, 560 …

EXA Infrastructure extends high-capacity London-to-Balkans fibre route

London-registered network operator EXA Infrastructure has today launched two new high-capacity terrestrial European fibre network routes – running between Milan and Zurich, extending the Frankfurt-Zurich-Milan-Genoa corridor, and between Paris and Vienna, …

'Nostradamus of the Balkans' Predicts Alien Encounter and End of Vladimir Putin's Regime in 2026

In the Balkans, the dangerous games being played by Donald Trump

shareShareHoping in vain to one day be admitted to the European Union, and lacking any common project, the Balkan countries are once again confronting their old demons. On 4 October, Serbian and Croatian nationalists won the elections in Bosnia, …

Why the Western Balkans Struggle to Catch Up with Europe

For all the political promises about the Western Balkans’ European future, one figure offers a sobering measure of how far that future remains from everyday life: 43 percent. According to the OECD, the region’s average GDP per capita reached 43 percent of …