Balkan Legal News – 20 November 2025

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 13 November to 19 November 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

Bulgaria – 19 November 2025

Almost a year after the deaths of three Egyptian teenagers in the border area between Bulgaria and Turkey, an internal report by a body within the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, has found that Bulgarian authorities “failed to implement adequate measures in time that resulted in loss of lives” and likely obstructed rescue efforts. The full article is available here.

North Macedonia – 19 November 2025

The first court hearing started on Wednesday at Skopje’s Idrizovo correctional facility, due to space and security concerns over this complex case, the Skopje Criminal Court said. Thirty-eight defendants, including 35 people and three legal entities, are accused of participating in or turning a blind eye to years of systemic failings and corruption related to the work of the “Pulse” nightclub in Kocani, resulting in a disaster that devastated the small town and shocked the country. The full article is available here.

Kosovo – 18 November 2025

In his two-day testimony at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, General Wesley Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, said the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, was the reaction of ethnic Albanians to more than a decade of oppression by the Serbian regime, and denied it committed ethnic cleansing against local Serbs after the war ended. The full article can be found here.

Croatia – 18 November 2025

After a commemorative programme in the courtyard of Vukovar Hospital on Tuesday, a Procession of Remembrance marking the 34th anniversary of the fall of the eastern Croatian town set off for the Memorial Cemetery of the Victims of the Homeland War. The 5.5-kilometre procession from the hospital was led by Croatian veterans together with the families of the fallen, missing and murdered and of deceased defenders, headed by women veterans of Vukovar. The full article can be found here.

Serbia – 18 November 2025

Serbian protesters clashed with police in the city of Novi Sad in front of the regional government building of Vojvodina, Serbia’s northern province, on Monday night, as a hunger strike by bus company owner Milomir Jacimovic became a flashpoint in the ongoing student-led protest movement.

Jacimovic has become popular among students for providing them with transport to protests. In a show of support for the protest movement, he also parked one of his buses outside the Vojvodina government building. The full article can be found here.

Albania – 17 November 2025

Albania opened its last cluster of topics in its EU membership negotiations on Monday, covering agriculture and fisheries, food safety and cohesion policy – another step forward on the road to membership for the Balkan state. The landmark event took place at the seventh EU-Albania intergovernmental conference in Brussels. Albania opened its first cluster of talks, covering the judiciary and fundamental rights, freedom and security and procurements and financial control, in October last year – completing the whole process in around one year. The full article can be found here.

Moldova – 17 November 2025

The media sector in EU candidate state Moldova is facing mounting threats from emergency regulations, opaque sanctions and political polarisation, according to a new Amnesty International report published on Monday. The report notes arbitrary penalties, vague legislation, harassment of reporters and direct reporting bans in the breakaway region of Transnistria. Amnesty International says that while the government cites national security to justify its actions, the approach often bypasses basic legal safeguards and undermines media freedom. The full article can be found here.

Greece – 14 November 2025

The Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance and minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis filed a lawsuit on Friday for deceptive advertising on Facebook against the unknown administrators of a page on the social media platform. The ministry and Pierrakakis allege that AI was used to create misleading advertising for an investment scheme – an audiovisual ‘deepfake’ of Pierrakakis appearing to promote the scheme. The full article can be found here.

Kosovo – 13 November 2025

Michael Durkee, former political adviser to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Wesley Clark, told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers war crimes court on Thursday that Hashim Thaci did not have “the competency or the authority” to stop violence carried out by Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA members or others seeking “revenge” after the war ended in 1999. “There was absolutely no command structure he could use to stop the violence” Durkee told the Hague trial of Thaci and three co-defendants. The full article can be found here.