Balkan Legal News - 09 August 2024
- Aug 8, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 10, 2024
The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 1 August 2024 to 8 August 2024. 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.
Balkans - 8 August 2024
The exploitation of workers, locals as well as migrants, is a growing concern in the Western Balkans. Despite its prevalence, the scourge too often goes unreported and unaddressed; see here.
Serbia - 8 August 2024
Serbia’s strongman ruler leans west with a lithium deal. Russia is displeased with the latest sign that President Aleksandar Vučić is integrating his economy with Europe and the US; see here.
Serbia - 7 August 2024
On 19 July 2024, the European Union (EU) and the Republic of Serbia (“Serbia”) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) creating a strategic partnership on sustainable raw materials, battery value chains and electric vehicles; see here.
Kosovo - 7 August 2024
Protesters gathered in North Mitrovica to condemn the Kosovo government’s push to fully open the main bridge in the divided town, which has been closed to vehicles since the end of the war in June 1999; see here.
Bulgaria - 7 August 2024
Bulgaria’s parliament adopted a law which prohibits “propaganda” for “non-traditional sexual orientations” in schools, sparking outrage and calls for protests. The legislation was drafted by the pro-Russian Revival party, but on its first and second reading it also gained support also from pro-Western factions as well; see here.
Romania - 6 August 2024
Romania’s prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, said he will boycott the Olympic closing ceremony after his country was denied a medal in the women’s gymnastics; see here.
Kosovo - 5 August 2024
An MP from Kosovo’s ruling party is facing questions over his role in the expropriation of land west of Pristina by Kosovo’s power company, a process residents say was conducted unfairly; see here.
Bosnia - 5 August 2024
The mayor of Trnovo, Ibro Berilo, was one of four people arrested after the State Investigation and Protection Agency raided 12 locations in Sarajevo Canton, seeking evidence of systemic corruption; see here.
Albania - 5 August 2024
Police investigations reveal that organised crime groups often use ordinary people and passenger transport agencies to smuggle their illegal profits from EU countries and elsewhere back into Albania; see here.
North Macedonia - 6 August 2024
A government official from North Macedonia was arrested for allegedly mass-producing millions of fake €2 coins, the European Union’s law enforcement agency announced Tuesday; see here.
Bosnia - 6 August 2024
Borislav Paravac, a former Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, was acquitted of taking part in wartime attacks that killed several hundred Bosniaks and Croats in Doboj and Tesic 1992 and 1993; see here
Kosovo - 5 August 2024
Nine offices run by the Serbian national postal service Posta Srbije were closed down in a Kosovo Police operation, which follows the Kosovo Central Bank’s decision to end the use of Serbia’s currency, the dinar; see here.
Kosovo - 5 August 2024
An MP from Kosovo’s ruling party is facing questions over his role in the expropriation of land west of Pristina by Kosovo’s power company, a process residents say was conducted unfairly; see here.
Croatia - 5 August 2024
Croatian officials celebrated the 29th anniversary of the country's military victory over rebel Serbs in 1995, while Serbia mourned the fate of the many Croatian Serbs who fled their homes, never to return; see here.
North Macedonia - 2 August 2024
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani was involved in a scuffle with airport security in Skopje that grew into a diplomatic altercation when airport security tried to scan the Head of State’s mobile phone; see here.
