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Albania
The new edition of BIRN’s Western Balkans Stability Monitor looks at election fever in the region. Some countries are heading towards elections; in others, parties are using possible polls as…
May 25, 2026
· 1 min read
Albania
Albania wants to develop a new commercial port in Durres, but the public tender for its construction has fallen apart in acrimony and accusation.
May 25, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Election season is coming early to Greece with the unveiling of two new parties, but can anyone end the dominance of the conservative New Democracy party come 2027?
May 25, 2026
· 1 min read
A country adrift, critics supressed and an investment project with an explosive side are just some of the highlights of our selection of Premium stories this week.
May 22, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Political pressure and dwindling public funding mean that Europe’s museums are struggling to stay afloat - and fundraising via corporate sponsorship has brought its own issues.
May 22, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Elsewhere, Hungary’s new government seeks to limit PM’s mandate to a maximum of two terms; EU Parliament steps up pressure on Slovakia by urging freezing of EU funds; Czechia’s three-party…
May 22, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s planned Southern Interconnection gas pipeline to Croatia has become a focal point for domestic political wrangling and competing EU-US approaches to energy infrastructure.
May 22, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Two asylum seekers tell of their 100-day ordeal helping Greek border guards push refugees and migrants back over the Evros river into Turkey, in return for their own free passage.
May 22, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Serbia, the Kremlin’s closest Balkan friend, is warming its ties with another would-be EU member, Ukraine – despite the two states’ very different relations with Moscow.
May 21, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
In North Macedonia, an enduring ethnic divide extends to conflicting interpretations of what actually happened during World War II.
May 21, 2026
· 1 min read
Albania
The Democratic Party has barred all rivals to Sali Berisha from its leadership contest this week – cementing his grip on the party but also, critics warn, undermining its credibility.
May 21, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
A diplomatic spat between Serbia and Montenegro over the latter’s independence anniversary celebrations underscores the lingering tensions between the two and the work-in-progress that is Montenegrin statehood.
May 21, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Six weeks after his Tisza movement upended Hungarian politics, Peter Magyar arrived in Poland on his first official foreign trip – a visit carefully designed to signal both democratic realignment…
May 20, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Most European leaders stayed well away from Putin’s May jamboree – and the meagre presence of a few Bosnian Serb political leaders only underscored Moscow’s isolation.
May 20, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Rene Karabash tells BIRN how the ancient Albanian custom of women becoming ‘sworn virgins’ became the subject of her acclaimed novel – which put Bulgarian literature in the spotlight as…
May 20, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Activists and migrants say a new programme to regulate the status of migrant workers in Romania is being used to deport those unaware they have already been issued with return…
May 20, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Orban turned Hungary’s public service media into a propaganda machine after taking office in 2010. Now out of power, questions are being raised about what to do with the state…
May 19, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Authorities are using the 2022 law to silence critical voices – while a newly adopted social media law poses further threats to free speech.
May 19, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
In popular destinations such as Croatia, Spain and Greece, the everyday lives of ordinary people are being turned upside down by overtourism. Could tourist taxes, restrictions on short-term rentals or…
May 19, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Playing tour guide over the weekend to various buildings renovated using billions in taxpayer money, Magyar said his government will keep the building previously used as the Prime Minister’s Office…
May 18, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
As Christian Schmidt readies to quit as High Representative, Europe and its allies must resolutely push for a powerful successor – and forget ‘compromising’ with a United States that has…
May 18, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Lejla Dauti and Leonarda Demolli migrated to the UK from Kosovo as children where their experience of gender freedom led them to found a podcast sharing the voices of Albanian…
May 18, 2026
· 1 min read
Albania
Albania has greenlighted construction of a luxury island resort by a company linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law - but under the azure waters lie tonnes of unexploded WWII ordnance.
May 18, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is on the rise across Europe, despite stronger equal rights laws.
May 15, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
While the prize of EU membership is coming within grasping distance for Montenegro, our selection of Balkan Insight Premium stories this week highlights the uncertainties facing other countries in the…
May 15, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Extensive injuries sustained in a police crackdown on anti-government protesters in the western Serbian town of Valjevo in August last year show the use of force was often ‘punitive’ rather…
May 15, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Albanian law students from North Macedonia say they should be allowed to take the bar exam in their mother tongue. The dispute speaks to a broader problem of unfulfilled language…
May 15, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
The crisis in Romania is not the government’s fall – but the creation of a dangerous governance vacuum that no mainstream parties seem willing to fill.
May 15, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Elsewhere, Magyar sworn in as new Hungarian PM and holds first cabinet meeting; Trump ally tipped as new US ambassador to Slovakia; Czech president and PM still at odds over…
May 15, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Montenegro has a different relationship to its socialist past than some other ex-Yugoslav republics, but that doesn’t mean its anti-fascist monuments aren’t neglected or that revisionism is not a threat.
May 14, 2026
· 1 min read
Albania
Prosecutors dropped a probe into the alleged smuggling of Russian oil through an Albanian port in 2023, but behind the vessel in question lies a network of individuals and companies…
May 14, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
The opposition sees the desertion of some of its mayors and councillors to join Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP as part of a government strategy aimed at weakening local resistance…
May 14, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Poland's largest crypto exchange has a missing founder, suspected ties to Russian organised crime and a CEO who made large payments to right-wing politicians – all while the president blocked…
May 13, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
The EU feels a spring in its step as it readies to accept its first new member since 2013 – a decision of enormous symbolic weight, which will also set…
May 13, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Abandoned by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Kosovo's ex-President Vjosa Osmani has returned to the opposition party she left six years ago. But will the rapprochement help or hinder the LDK…
May 13, 2026
· 1 min read
All Countries
Christian Schmidt’s departure as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s international peace overseer risks adding to the country’s instability – and fuelling calls for the High Representative office’s abolition.
May 12, 2026
· 1 min read
