🔔 New BiEPAG policy brief
🔹 Mining in the Western Balkans: How to counter authoritarian extractivism?
As the EU secures critical raw materials, mining in the Western Balkans raises concerns over governance, environmental risks, and weak public participation.
📄 Read here ⬇️
tinyurl.com/mrxz77xh
🔔 New BiEPAG blog
✍️ Giorgio Fruscione
🔹 The US and the Legitimation of Secessionism in Bosnia
The removal of US sanctions against Milorad Dodik carries powerful symbolism in BiH, potentially legitimizing secessionist ambitions and weakening the Dayton framework.
📖 Read here ⬇️
tinyurl.com/yd3u43pe
🎧 Worth a listen: Marina Vulović is currently a Visiting Fellow at SWP EU/Europe and discusses the dynamics of Serbia’s student protest movement on the @biepag.bsky.social-Talk.
Policy Brief: www.biepag.eu/wp-content/u...
🔔 New BiEPAG blog
✍️ Gresa Hasa
🔹 Corruption Is Terrible, If You’re Not the One Doing It
Anti-corruption protests in Albania reveal a deeper political rivalry, as opposition actors compete to reclaim legitimacy amid corruption scandals and institutional reshuffling.
Read here⬇️
tinyurl.com/5n75zxvr
🔔 Seriously Balkans – The BiEPAG Talks ep.22
🔹 The Student Protest Movement in Serbia: What does the Future hold?
🎙️ Our BiEPAG Coordinator @fbieber.bsky.social is hosting his guests:
🔸Marina Vulović
🔸Jelena Vasiljević
🔸 Nikola Burazer
👇 Tune in now 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/1Y48...
🔔New policy brief
✍️J. Marović & O. Barbullushi
🔹How Accession Treaties Can Strengthen Europe
The brief argues for enforceable safeguards, rule-of-law conditionality, and performance-based integration. EU accession treaties must become tools for democratic resilience.
📄https://tinyurl.com/ycbuu8wy
My latest article for @biepag.bsky.social looks into the 56th World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, and the challenges of small countries in the WB6 in navigating power and diplomacy in an era of unstable alliances.
I invite you to take a look! 👇🏻
✍️BiEPAG blog by @gresahasa.bsky.social
🔹Navigating Power Without Power: The Western Balkans in an Era of Unstable Alliances
As global alliances shift and multilateral norms weaken, Western Balkan states are forced into pragmatic diplomacy to protect their interests.
📖 Read here
tinyurl.com/BiEPAG
🔔 New BiEPAG blog
✍️ Donika Emini
🔹 Snap Election in Kosovo: The one when Vetëvendosje takes it all
Kosovo’s snap elections ended a year of political deadlock, delivering Vetëvendosje a rare one-party majority and reshaping the country’s political landscape.
📖 Read here ⬇️
tinyurl.com/5n9yvrvc
Throughout 2025, Europe, and foremost the EU, have been sidelined as partners and often depicted as adversaries of the US. A new @biepag.bsky.social discussion explores the implications of this emerging transatlantic rift on the #WesternBalkans.
open.spotify.com/episode/4ntK...
🔔 Seriously Balkans – The BiEPAG Talks ep.21
🔹 The Western Balkans under Trump
🎙️ Our BiEPAG member @damirkapidzic.bsky.social
is hosting his guests:
🔸@filipejdus.bsky.social
🔸Biljana Kotevska
#WesternBalkans #TransatlanticRelations
👇 Tune in for more 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/4ntK...
🔔 This year's last episode is out
🎙️ Seriously Balkans - The BiEPAG talks ep. 20
30 years after the Dayton Peace Agreement, a whole generation has grown up under a frozen constitutional system.
What does “Dayton” mean for those born after the war?
Listen here 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/6tUG...
▪️The closure of Al Jazeera Balkans and pressure on regional media raise concerns about media pluralism and public access to information
▪️In #Serbia, #N1 and #NovaTV continue to operate under intense political pressure
▪️These developments raise questions about the #mediafreedom in the region.
▪️In 2025, press freedom and independent journalism face growing challenges globally
▪️In the Balkans, governments continue to exert pressure on independent media, contrary to EU standards
▪️Declined support with USAID shut down and outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe were affected.
🔔Seriously Balkans - The BiEPAG talks ep.19
🔹The predicament of media and press freedom in the Balkans
🎙️Our BiEPAG member Giorgio Fruscione
is hosting his guests:
Lejla Mazlic and @slobageorgiev.bsky.social
#MediaFreedom
👇Tune in for more on this topic👇
open.spotify.com/episode/5thu...
🔹Serbia stands at a crossroads: without decisive action, the current crisis risks accelerating democratic backsliding.
This BiEPAG's brief lists the recommendations for getting out of this gridlock, insisting on a urgent reset in EU-Serbia relations.
www.biepag.eu/publication/...
🔹Students, civil society, academia, and opposition actors need visible, consistent EU support now more than ever.
🔹The EU can no longer accept cosmetic reforms. Real democratic progress must be firmly linked to advancement in accession talks.
🔹Citizens have mobilized at scale, public opinion is shifting, and the government response is becoming increasingly authoritarian.
🔹Serbia’s mass protests after the Novi Sad tragedy mark the most serious challenge yet to Vučić’s rule—and a clear democratic tipping point.
🔔New BiEPAG policy brief:
🔹Resetting the EU’s Approach to Serbia:
Lessons from the 2024-25 Protests
📝Authors:
BiEPAG members
Nikola Burazer, Marina Vulović, and Jelena Vasiljević.
#Serbia #EU
#StudentProtests
#StudentLedProtests
#EUAccession
⬇️ tinyurl.com/ya2eyrk8
🔔Seriously Balkans - The BiEPAG talks ep.18
🔹A Change in #RepublikaSrpska?
🎙️Host
@damirkapidzic.bsky.social
Guests:
@dzenetakarabeg.bsky.social
University of Salzburg
@vedrandzihic.bsky.social
@infooiip.bsky.social / BiEPAG
#BiH #Dodik
🎧Tune in👇 open.spotify.com/episode/1GK0...
📣BiEPAG in the Media 📰
Our BiEPAG Member Richard Grieveson in an interview for the @newunionpost.bsky.social
🔹Full EU membership is the only “real game changer” for the Western Balkans’ economies
Read it at👇
newunionpost.eu/2025/11/25/w...
#SEPA #EUSingleMarket
#EU #WesternBalkans
.@jomarovic.bsky.social for @biepag.bsky.social:
"Years were lost. No — decades. Twenty-two years since the Thessaloniki promise, and the #WesternBalkans is still orbiting the EU like a satellite nobody wants to land."
www.biepag.eu/blog/why-the...
In her latest BiEAPG blog, @jomarovic.bsky.social takes on the EU’s approach to the Western Balkans:
"For 30 years, the EU has promised the Western Balkans a European future — while quietly backtracking, shifting excuses, and delivering too little, too late."
Read here ⬇️
tinyurl.com/5arus2py
Read the new BiEPAG blog by Lutjona Lula
Albania’s Gen Z overwhelmingly supports EU membership and expect integration to improve daily life.
But enthusiasm without knowledge is fragile: if reforms stall, optimism may turn into frustration.
📖Read here ⬇️
tinyurl.com/46jkeazw
Today, on the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Agreement, ISPI has published a dossier "Dayton at Thirty: The Peace That Froze Bosnia".
It also includes my contribution on the lessons the world has (not) learned after the Srebrenica genocide:
www.ispionline.it/en/publicati...
Despite the positive approach of gradual integration of the region into the Single Market, full membership is the only “real game changer” for the #WesternBalkans economies, says Richard Grieveson, Deputy Director at the @wiiw.ac.at and @biepag.bsky.social member
newunionpost.eu/2025/11/25/w...
In his new BiEPAG blog, @kurtbassuener.bsky.social takes on the shifting geopolitics around Bosnia:
US sanctions lifted, tone changed, and Europe suddenly exposed.
If the EU wants credibility, it must act — not wait.
Read it here: tinyurl.com/4hjxphnd
