Balkan Legal News – 22 October 2025

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 15 October to 21 October 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

Bosnia & Hercegovina – 21 October 2025

Former Bosnian security minister, Nenad Nesic, has paid a bail of 1.37 million Bosnian marks, or just over 700,000 euros, to secure release in a corruption case alleging he took bribes while leading a state-owned company before his ministerial role. The payment relaxes prior restrictions on his movement after months of detention, as prosecutors continue their probe (part of Bosnia’s wider crackdown on high-level corruption). The full article is available here.

Serbia – 21 October 2025

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has described the Council of the European Union’s draft proposal to ban all Russian natural gas imports in the EU as “not great” – and said his country, which is overwhelmingly dependent on Russian gas, will find it difficult to find alternative ways to import it or to find alternative sources for supplies. President Vucic suggested that one possible solution might be to import via other countries, such as his ally Hungary, another country that will be deeply affected by the ban, but he said that would require major infrastructure investment. The full article can be found here.

Serbia – 20 October 2025

Nebojsa Pavkovic, a former Yugoslav Army general who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for war crimes, died in Serbia on Monday 20 October aged 79. Until he was released a month ago on health grounds, Pavkovic was serving his sentence in Finland. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia found him guilty in 2009 of being part of a joint criminal enterprise whose aim was the persecution and forcible removal of Albanians from Kosovo during the war. He was also found guilty of murder.  The full article can be found here.

North Macedonia – 20 October 2025

The ruling VMRO DPMNE party won local election contests on Sunday by a landslide in almost all ethnic Macedonian-majority areas, leaving its main opposition rival, the Social Democrats, in the dust. VMRO DPMNE mayoral candidates came first in 53 out the country’s 81 municipalities, including in the capital, Skopje, the main prize in these polls. In more than 30 municipalities, the ruling party is on course to win mayoral seats outright after securing more than half of the votes in the first round of voting. The full article can be found here.

Bosnia & Herzegovina – 19 October 2025

In a late-night vote on Saturday, lawmakers in the National Assembly of Republika Srpska, the Serb-run political entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, appointed Ana Trisic Babic as acting president until elections are held next month. The appointment comes after the presidential mandate of Milorad Dodik was finally revoked in August following a court verdict sentencing him to one year in prison and imposing a six-year ban on holding presidential office for defying decisions made by the High Representative, Bosnia’s international peace overseer. The full article can be found here.

Bosnia & Hercegovina – 17 October 2025

The US Treasury’s Office for Foreign Assets Control on Friday removed sanctions previously imposed on four officials from Bosnia’s Serb-run Republika Srpska entity. They are Danijel Dragicevic, chief-of-staff to the Republika Srpska president, Jelena Pajic Bastinac, secretary general of the entity’s presidency, Milenkovic Dijana, director of Radio Television of Republika Srpska and Goran Rakovic, who was head of protocol in the office of the president. All four were sanctioned at different times for participation in the organisation of the Day of Republika Srpska on 9 January, which the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina twice declared unconstitutional. The full article can be found here.

Albania – 17 October 2025

Hundreds of supporters of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s wartime struggle against Serbian forces rallied in the Albanian capital Tirana on Friday to protest against the war crimes trial of Kosovo’s former President Hashim Thaci and three other ex-KLA officers in The Hague. Rallying at the main Skanderbeg Square, protesters held banners with slogans including “We will not allow history to be rewritten in The Hague”, “Freedom for the liberators”, “The Special Court is not justice but international betrayal”. The full article can be found here.

Serbia – 15 October 2025

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen told President Aleksandar Vucic during her visit to Belgrade on Wednesday that “now is the moment for Serbia to get concrete” about joining the bloc. At a joint press conference with President Vucic, Von der Leyen said that “we need to see progress on the rule of law, the electoral framework and media freedom” from EU membership candidate Serbia. The full article can be found here.