Balkan Legal News – 03 December 2025

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 25 November to 02 December 2025. Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates with a focus on Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.

Guernica 37 Balkan Legal News

Serbia – 2 December 2025

Serbia’s mainly Russian-owned oil company NIS (Serbian Oil Industry) announced on Tuesday that its Pancevo refinery is suspending production due to a lack of crude oil as a result of US sanctions imposed over Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The full article is available here.

Turkey – 2 December 2025

Turkish investigative journalist Furkan Karabay walked free from prison on Tuesday after spending six-and-a half-months behind bars awaiting his sentence.  A court in Istanbul sentenced him to four years and three months in prison for “insulting the president” and “targeting individuals involved in the fight against terrorism” within articles, videos and social media posts. But he was released the same day pending his appeal – a process that could take years. The full article is available here.

Bulgaria – 2 December 2025

Huge crowds took to the streets of the capital Sofia and other major cities on Monday night to protest against the governing coalition of centre-right populists GERB, the pro-Russia Bulgarian Socialist Party and nationalist party There’s Such a People, backed by tycoon Delyan Peevski’s New Beginning. The full article is available here.

Bulgaria – 1 December 2025

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Sofia filed an indictment on Monday charging the former mayor of Varna and GERB ruling party member Ivan Portnih with fraud relating to a fake Black Sea fishing port. Portnih stands accused of illegally obtaining millions of euros in funds by pretending to reconstruct a fishing port that did not actually exist.  The full article is available here.

Romania – 28 November 2025

Romania’s Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu unexpectedly resigned in a post on Facebook on Friday, after media reports cast doubt on the credibility of his university studies and whether he had completed all the required coursework.  The full article is available here.

Albania – 27 November 2025

Albania’s economy remains one of the fastest-growing in Europe, supported by strong tourism, contained inflation and declining public debt, but structural challenges and rising external risks threaten its medium-term outlook, the International Monetary Fund said in a statement. In a concluding statement following Article IV consultations, the IMF said real GDP growth is expected to reach 3.5% in 2025, easing slightly from recent post-pandemic rates, with a further uptick to 3.6% in 2026. Headline inflation, currently subdued, is forecast to edge up to the Bank of Albania’s 3% target in the second half of 2026, driven by tight labour markets and rising wages. The full article can be found here.

Bosnia & Hercegovina – 27 November 2025

Alen Muhic presented ‘I Am Alen’, his book about his life since being born in Gorazde in Bosnia in 1993 as a result of wartime rape, for the first time in Serbia to a packed hall in Belgrade on Wednesday evening. Muhic’s biological mother, a Bosniak woman, was raped by a Serbian soldier during the war years in the town of Foca. His book is a personal testimony that raises questions of identity, belonging, pain, and love as well as being a confrontation with his traumatic past, providing insight into an experience that often remains outside public discourse. The full article is available here.

Greece – 26 November 2025

A court in Greece on Wednesday found 14 defendants guilty of illegally receiving EU agricultural subsidies in 2020 via the Greek Payment Authority for Common Agricultural Policy Aid Schemes, known as OPEKEPE. The Single-Member Misdemeanour Court in Athens imposed jail sentences of 10 to 18 months, all suspended for three years. The full article can be found here.

Serbia – 26 November 2025

A group of opposition MPs on Wednesday cut the wires holding the fences of a controversial tent camp, nicknamed “Caciland”, in front of parliament, in order to go through it to attend a parliamentary session. When they removed one of the tents from the stairs at the entrance, pro-government supporters tried to stop them. The full article can be found here.

Western Balkans – 25 November 2025

The “Europe’s environment 2025” report - the most comprehensive analysis of Europe’s environment, climate and sustainability - will be launched in Podgorica on 25 November 2025, for the Western Balkans region. The event celebrates more than two decades of cooperation between the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the six Western Balkan partners: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. The full article can be found here.