In 2017 the opposition VMRO DPMNE party accused the then ruling Social Democrats of secret plans to take in Middle Eastern migrants. These turned out to be unfounded. Now the VMRO DPMNE is in power, ...

BIRN reporters trace the rise of Albanian crime gangs to the top of the European cocaine trafficking ladder, from remote parts of Paraguay to European Union ports. On the afternoon of November 5, 2020 ...

As the new US National Security Strategy highlights Washington’s pivot away from a rules-based democratic global order, the EU should focus hard on the one region where it can exert the most leverage ...

Foreign workers are increasingly vital to Croatia’s economy, but the public mood is souring – and some political parties are deepening divisions. It’s a stark figure. Only three per cent of Croatian ...

Poland has bought itself time – with borrowed money, deferred choices and strong growth. What it does with that time will determine whether 2026 marks a consolidation or the beginning of a reckoning.

In Serbia, 2025 was the year when protesting students rejected collaboration with the country’s civil society NGOs - but at what cost? Twenty-one-year-old Jovana Pongracic is a third-year student of ...

People across Serbia have lost their jobs after supporting student-led protests against the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, or for refusing to attend government-backed counter-rallies. For 16 years, ...

Bulgarians are gradually getting used to the currency change, but while some welcome a ‘sign that we belong’, pro-Russian elements remain bitterly discontented.

Tirana’s EU accession process is running in top gear – but worryingly, there’s no sign this is being matched with a democratic deepening at home. In 2025, Albania moved through the EU accession ...

Dramatic situation reported in several towns, while some locals complain of being abandoned.

Viktor Orban’s government has made no secret of its pro-Russian stance and is also exploiting anti-Ukrainian sentiment in its campaign for the April 2026 parliamentary elections. This programme is ...

Mark Rutte said any Ukraine peace deal must not be a re-run of the 2015 agreement, which merely paved the way for Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, in an ...