Balkan Legal News - 11 October 2024

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 3 October 2024 – 10 October 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.

Guernica 37 Balkan Legal News

Serbia – 10 October 2024

As work resumes on a controversial lithium mining project in the Jadar Valley, Serbia’s parliament rejected an opposition proposal to ban its exploration and extraction; see here.

Kosovo – 10 October 2024

Kosovo keeps its contracts with lobbyists secret, raising concerns over a lack of transparency in the way in which taxpayer money is being spent; see here.

Bosnia – 10 October 2024

Seven wartime fighters were sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison for the inhumane treatment, unlawful detention, torture and killing of civilians in the city of Lukavac in 1992; see here.

Kosovo – 9 October 2024

The only three suspects arrested so far in Kosovo for the deadly attack on police by a Serb armed group in the northern village of Banjska in September 2023 pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges; see here.

Balkans – 9 October 2024

At a summit in Croatia attended by Volodymyr Zelensky, top officials from 12 south-east European states signed a declaration expressing support for embattled Ukraine’s independence and its EU and NATO membership aspirations; see here.

Kosovo – 9 October 2024

In 2022, the law in Kosovo changed to oblige prosecutors to submit redacted indictments to courts for public access, but implementation varies from place to place and some journalists aren’t taking advantage; see here.

Kosovo – 8 October 2024

Brussels says Pristina's decision to lift its ban on Serbian goods at one border crossing is a positive step toward restoring free trade in the region and unblocking CEFTA; see here.

Romania/Bulgaria – 8 October 2024

On October 10, the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union Council will introduce the current state of full implementation of the Schengen acquis in both Romania and Bulgaria at the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council in Luxembourg; see here.

Romania – 8 October 2024

The UK has offered dozens of stranded migrants, held for years in a camp on a secretive UK-US military island in the Indian Ocean, a temporary move to Romania; see here.

Bosnia – 8 October 2024

BIRN details the creation of a shadowy, heavily armed and potentially illegal police unit at the exclusive, 24-hour beck and call of the man who led Bosnia’s border police for nine years and is now a fugitive from arrest; see here.

Romania – 7 October 2024

Romania's electoral authorities have declined to reimburse the nationalist AUR party for its expenses in the June local and European parliamentary elections, allegedly because it breached political financing rules; see here.

Croatia – 3 October 2024

The long-standing conflict between Prime Minister Plenkovic and President Milanovic flared up again because the President did not approve of the presence of Croatian soldiers at a NATO military exercise; see here.