Compiled by Eva Jovanova and Hristo Voynov
1. Great news for the Balkans came from Brussels this week. The European Commission published its annual progress reports on the Western Balkan countries and Turkey this Tuesday. The seven individual reports assess the readiness of each country to join the EU. Whereas Serbia and Montenegro are the only countries that have already started the negotiation process with the EC, positive recommendations came from Brussels for Macedonia and Albania too. This means that the two candidate countries have also provided satisfactory results and are assessed to be ready to open the negotiation talks with the EU.
2. Russia finally has positive news regarding international sanctions against it. The US’ UN Ambassador Nikki Haley stated more sanctions against Russia were imminent due to its support for Syria’s government, but this was then shut down by President Donald Trump. However, this is much too late for the multiple sanctions already put in place over the last few months. In regards to this, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko has indicated that Moscow is currently working on the finer details regarding retaliatory sanctions against the West, though the exact details are being worked out to avoid hurting vital Russian industries.
3. The current Serbian MP and war criminal Vojislav Seselj disrupts the Serbian political scene both domestically and internationally. Since last week’s verdict by the ICTY which found Seselj guilty of war crimes during the Yugoslav wars, heads of NGOs urged the Parliament to strip Seselj of his mandate. This Wednesday, during a visit by a Croatian parliamentary delegation, Seselj trampled on the Croatian flag and called the Croatian MPs fascists, which led to the delegation abruptly ending its visit. The Croatian delegation was supposed to meet Serbia’s President and Prime Minister this Thursday. Serbian Parliamentary Speaker was quick to condemn his actions, and now it is up to the Parliament to terminate his (illegal) mandate.
4. Slovak Interior Minister Tomáš Drucker resigned because of his refusal to respond to protests which called on Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar to be fired. Following this, PM Peter Pellegrini and Gašpar decided on a mutual agreement for Gašpar to leave the police force. There have been constant protests following the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, and Gašpar is a victim of the loss of faith that Slovakian civil society has with its police force due to how the case was initially treated. While Drucker said that there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Gašpar, a fresh start may make an important difference in restoring trust between civil society and the state. Meanwhile, the investigation into the murder has finally brought in outside assistance, including Italian police as well as representatives from Eurojust and Europol.
5. Montenegro’s former Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic won his eighth term in this Sunday’s presidential election. Mr. Djukanovic has served six times as a Prime Minister and once as a President of the small Adriatic. This Sunday 64% of the 530.000 eligible voters showed up to the voting polls to choose their next president, and almost 54% cast their vote for Mr. Djukanovic. As second came Mladen Bojanic, an independent candidate who was supported by the majority of the opposition parties, with 33.4% of the votes. After his defeat, Mr. Bojanic spoke of a state capture by Mr. Djukanovic who has ruled the country for almost 30 years.
6. Following a failed coalition-building talks in Czechia, President Milos Zeman suggested that the ruling ANO party cooperate with the Communist party and the Freedom and Direct Democracy party. This sparked outrage because of the Freedom and Direct Democracy party’s far-right eurosceptic and nationalist views. Following this, the ruling ANO party decided to resume talks with the left-leaning Social Democrats which failed because of disagreements over how many cabinet members they would receive as the minority party. In the meantime, there has been talk of uniting all the opposition parties to form a minority coalition which would compete with ANO, though this will probably be an even greater challenge than the one that ANO is currently facing.
7. Bulgaria was shaken by a scandal this Tuesday. According to the head of the Special Prosecutor office, the mayor of Mladost, a large municipality within Bulgaria’s capital, demanded a bribe of half a million euros to allow the construction of four new buildings in her district. The mayor Desislava Ivancheva was arrested by the police while sitting in a municipality-owned car and allegedly possessing 70.000 euros in cash. According to the head of the Special Prosecution office, this money was just the deposit for a much bigger bribe. Mrs. Ivancheva was elected as an independent mayor in 2016 on a platform that fought against over-construction in the municipality.
8. People took to the streets of Hungary following the election results to protest. The protests have had various themes, but the main message has been about the issues with the Hungarian electoral system which allowed FIDESZ, who won 49.27% of the vote, 133 out of 199 seats in the parliament. This is a big enough majority that FIDESZ alone could change the constitution. The Hungarian government responded in its traditional fashion, claiming that these protests are organized by money from Hungarian American billionaire, George Soros, without providing any evidence of these claims.
9. Macedonian Foreign Affairs Minister Nikola Dimitrov and his Greek counterpart Nikos Kotzias finished the third round of the talks on the name issue in Ohrid last Thursday. They both stated that progress has been made, especially in establishing a time frame in the negotiations talks, however, the hardest issues are yet to be overcome. The name issue remains one of the biggest obstacles on Macedonia’s path towards the EU. This week was full of optimism in Macedonia. After a visit by Enlargement Commissioner Hahn and EU’s foreign policy chief Mogherini, optimism peaked with the country receiving a recommendation by the EC to begin negotiations. However, for Macedonia to open the negotiation chapters, all EU members have to be on board.
10. The top court in the EU ruled against Poland in the final verdict regarding logging in the primeval Białowieża forest, that Poland cannot appeal. This will not include fines, as the logging has ended, but this opens the door for further sanctions. This comes from the same day that European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans held talks with high-level government officials from Poland regarding rule of law issues that have caused tension between it and the EU over the last few months. While he didn’t offer any final statement, he did indicate that there will be a final assessment in May.
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