Balkan Insight

Seventeen years after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Bosnia’s constitution unlawfully discriminates against Roma, Jews and 15 other minorities, they remain barred from the country’s highest political offices.

With Hashim Thaci and its other former leaders behind bars in The Hague, analysts say it’s time for the once-powerful Democratic Party of Kosovo to face the future and decide what it stands for.

Sanctions imposed on several TV talk shows over language used by guests are raising concerns about restrictions about the right to freely debate the ongoing anti-government protests in Albania.

European Commission President pledges 60 million euros to Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey to monitor – and respond to – the growing spillover from Russia's war on Ukraine.

Coast guard says 21 migrants lost their lives in the sea area south of the island of Crete while attempting to reach Greece.

Montenegro’s anti-terrorism agency says most citizens travelling to foreign battlefields in recent years were recruited through the internet.

Investigators say they have found no evidence so far of political or extremist activity by the 24-year-old who killed six people in Krakow on Saturday and is also believed to have murdered his immediate family.

Catch up on the weekend’s most important developments with Balkan Insight’s digest of news from countries across the region.

The Socialist Party of Serbia is out of parliament for the first time and unlikely to survive. Can the country now leave behind the system created by the party that dominated the 1990s under Slobodan Milosevic?

A decade after controversial renovations that experts say compromised its archaeological integrity, the Novoberde/Novo Brdo Fortress remains closed. Concerns about collapsing walls remain, as do unresolved questions about conservation restoration plans.

Doctors in a rush and the marginalisation of midwives mean more and more women in Greece are giving birth via C-section, often unnecessarily.

From Portugal to Poland, young Europeans are taking to the streets with hopes for a better future - and disdain for contemporary political orthodoxies.

Our selection of Balkan Insight Premium stories this week charts how some voters – from the US to Serbia – are sparking seismic political shifts, while others, such as those in Bulgaria, seem to be turning away from politics.

Dragana Djurica, head of the European Movement in Serbia, says the European Commission’s latest report on Serbia’s ‘backsliding’ on the path to EU membership can become a ‘roadmap for reform’ for the country’s next government.

Former minister and deputy chair of Turkey's ruling party Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya arrested over alleged role in unfolding scandal involving stock market share manipulation.

Nine current and former members of an elite police unit were remanded in custody for allegedly abusing student activists and other government opponents following a protest in August 2025.

Ergys Agasi started out as a young inspector at Albania’s environment ministry. Over the next decade, he accrued businesses, properties and influence within the highest echelons of government. His arrest begs the question: how did he rise so far, so fast?

Before quitting as head of state, Aleksandar Vucic pardoned various suspects accused of violent attacks on anti-government protesters - decisions that critics say may be illegal and unconstitutional.

Moldova has imposed a travel ban on breakaway Transnistria’s leader Vadim Krasnoselsky after Vladimir Putin gave him an award for upholding ‘Russian values’, sparking fresh controversy in the EU candidate state.

Elsewhere in the region, crisis over Poland’s constitutional court enters new phase; Slovak PM vows to fight on after losing parliamentary majority; and protests against Czech government’s public media reforms intensify.