Southern Balkans

On July 1, 2021, the contemporary art platform “Harabel” presented a sculpture by the Kosovar artist Sislej Xhafa, entitled Bleta (“Bee”), at the Sharra landfill, the municipal waste disposal site of the Municipality of Tirana. Xhafa’s...

REUTERS: The European Union will not lift political and economic sanctions on Kosovo unless the government de-escalates tensions with ethnic Serbs, EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak said on Tuesday during a visit in Pristina. EU countries imposed...

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Admir Thanza wasn’t given adequate opportunity to defend himself when he was fired as an Albanian judge for failing a corruption ‘integrity test’ – but that his dismissal...

Civil society organisations are concerned that the EU’s decision to suspend some funding for Kosovo until it complies with Brussels’ prescriptions for defusing tensions in the Serb-majority north could affect NGOs that depend on international grants....

head of an important papal trip to Romania, the Vatican wants to verify whether six Catholic priests in mainly Orthodox Romania collaborated in Communist times with the country’s infamous former secret police, the Securitate. The papal...

LBGTI advocates in Serbia have welcomed Ana Brnabic’s baby – while cautioning that her privileged political position has shielded her from the routine harassment and violence that the community faces in the country. Serbia’s Prime Minister,...

Concerns that Thursday’s opposition rally could end in widespread violence ebbed as supporters rallied peacefully in Tirana – while MPs delivered their resignation letters to the country’s parliament. Opposition supporters in Albania hailed the decision of...

Kushtrim Koliqi, a Pristina-based artist and human rights activist, told BIRN that he hopes that the new exhibition entitled ‘Living with the Memories of the Missing’ will have an impact on lawmakers after it was installed...

Bosnia’s governments have for years treasured public or state-owned companies, SOEs, as cash cows, using them to fund high public spending. Political parties used them to fund patronage networks, while for some politicians they are also...

With its population falling, Croatia is considering legal chages to make it easier for Croatian emigrants and their descendants to receive citizenship of the European Union’s newest member. But in doing so, it is ignoring the...