Compiled by Eva Jovanova and Hristo Voynov
1. Macedonia’s Parliament voted last Friday on the Prespa agreement that will result in Macedonia changing its name to North Macedonia. Two-thirds of the MPs supported the deal. Eight opposition MPs of the ultra-nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party voted for the deal, which resulted in them being under protection this week. Most VMRO-DPMNE MPs that supported the agreement were already under investigation or were facing charges either for terrorist activities they had committed last year in Parliament during the “Bloody Thursday” (a coup d’etat attempt) or were facing corruption charges. Thus, it is speculated that amnesties might be on the table. It might take up to three months until all of the constitutional amendments derived from the agreement gain the necessary support by the Parliament.
2. The US’ decision to drop its Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty has caused alarm for Russia, who originally signed it as the Soviet Union during the cold war. This is because US President Donald Trump claims that Russia is not following the treaty. NATO’s Secretary General agrees that Russia’s actions are cause for concern. Russia states that this decision could spark a new arms race, which could have devastating results for all. However, it also states that terminating the treaty, without providing a new treaty to work with, is a highly reckless decision. Russia is currently trying to get the US to extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which is a similar nuclear arms control treaty, though it says the US has yet to respond.
3. Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, turned into a bizzare crime scene yesterday, as two police officers were shot dead in the city center. The police officers were shot as they tried to impede car theft. The group of people that were committing the theft is still unknown to the public. Bosnia has a strict penalty system towards attacks on police officers, and the penalties are quite high compared to other European countries. The last time a similar incident occurred was in 2012, and the perpetrator got 34 years of imprisonment.
4. Various military developments are not helping the tension between Russia and NATO that has come to define their current relationship. NATO launched its Trident Juncture exercises in the Baltic Sea area, which is its largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War. On the other hand, Russia has been accused of blockading the Sea of Azov and building up forces in its Western enclave Kaliningrad, while it says that it is planning a response to the increase in US troops in the form of a planned permanent base on Polish territory. NATO is currently holding a two-day conference in Warsaw to discuss these security issues, which will hopefully help it find ways to reduce tension and military buildup.
5. Kosovo’s courts heard 48 war crime cases during the previous week, and 111 people stood trial for a period between 1999 to mid-June this year. More than half of the trials were of Serbs, 19 of ethnic Albanians, three of Montenegrins and one was a Roma defendant. 38 of the defendants were acquitted, and 39 were convicted (34 of them were ethnic Albanians, fours were Serbs, and one was ethnic Montenegrin). 28 of the accused are still on the run, most of whom are ethnic Serbs who had escaped from the Mitrovica detention center.
6. The dispute over ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine continues, but this week’s news finally features a positive direction. Hungary has been worried about forced assimilation and various anti-Hungarian actions for a while, including new anti-Hungarian billboards that were put up this week. It also declared that it would double financial assistance to the Hungarians in Ukraine, which probably won’t help the Ukrainian sentiment that they are looking to help the region secede, which Ukraine is currently hyper-sensitive to because of the war in its East with Russian backed separatists. To alleviate these fears, Hungary proposed a treaty to guarantee minority rights in the two countries. This will be discussed in a meeting scheduled for December 7th, but Ukraine is likely to bring its fear over future separatists into the meeting, complicating efforts to find common ground with Hungary’s global efforts to reunite itself with its diaspora.
7. Serbia is not making enough progress when it comes to its EU accession. According to a group of NGOs that monitor Serbia’s accession process, in significant areas such as the rule of law, Serbia is either stagnating or backsliding. Serbia has been an EU member since 2012 and has opened negotiations in 2014. It has opened 12 out of the 35 chapters of the acquis communitaire and provisionally closed two. The NGOs warn that Serbia has been lately adopted laws that exacerbate the already bad rule of law situation in the country.
8. Following the recent elections in Czechia, Prague’s new mayor has been announced as the Pirates Party leader Zdeněk Hřib. This will be in coalition with Top 09 and Praha Sobe who worked together before the elections to prevent the ruling ANO party from winning the important seat. While this is a small victory for the opposition, it sits in strong contrast to the long and painful process that ANO had in securing its coalition within the parliament that even now remains in question. Even now, President Babis’ party remains troubled in its efforts to rule the country, the most recent issue of which being his reneging on a promise to develop a code of ethics for his administration to follow.
9. Bulgarians are the most mistrustful of vaccines is what a report issued by the European Commission earlier this week shows. Only two out of three Bulgarians believe that vaccines are safe and effective. In general, the report shows a discouraging pattern – while some West European countries like Portugal and Finland become more trustful of the utility of vaccines, Eastern European EU member states like Poland, Slovakia and Bulgaria became much more distrustful. The only two West European countries whose results resemble the results in Bulgaria or Hungary are France and Belgium, where less than 80% of the population is skeptical of vaccines.
10. Local elections in Poland went as expected, with a victory for the ruling Law and Justice party. They won 32.3% of the vote, as opposed to the previous similar local elections in 2015 where they won 37.6%. Second place went to the Civic Coalition, an alliance between the Civic Platform and the Modern party, with 24.7, while the Polish People’s Party came third with 16.6. However, that victory is not definitive. Arguably the most important seat up for election was the mayoral position of the capital city Warsaw, which was won by the Civic Coalition candidate. While the ruling party has polled consistently well for years, this presents a possible direction away from their rule, if the Civic Coalition can win votes in the countryside instead of the liberal cities.
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