Weekly Brief

Albania
Prime Minister Rama on launching two satellites, President Meta on the IMF’s COVID-19-related report ranking the county as the one with the highest mortality in Europe, and Parliament Speaker Nikolla met her Greek counterpart Tasoulas in Athens. The satellites should become operational in March and June 2022, monitoring the country’s territory for illicit activities. Meta called on the Technical Committee of Experts to prevent a high rate of lost lives. Nikolla thanked Tasoulas for Greece’s support in organizing an intergovernmental conference by the end of this year.

Bosnia-Herzegovina
EU-US released a joint statement on the current situation, the country received the worst EU Progress Report ever, and the EUFOR airplane oversaw the Republika Srpska (RS) Police Forces’ exercise in the ski resort at Mountain Jahorina. The joint statement expressed full support to the county’s territorial sovereignty and expressed serious concerns about increasingly divisive rhetoric. The EU report concluded there is no progress in the fight against corruption and organized crime, the reform of the electoral process, freedom of expression, or external relations. RS Interior Minister Lukac stated the exercise was planned a long time ago and had nothing to do with the ongoing political crisis.

Croatia
Prime Minister Plenkovic announces EU-US talks on the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina next week in Sarajevo, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Grlic Radman met Azerbaijan President Aliyev, and more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive day. Plenkovic stated that everyone “watches Milorad Dodik’s messages with caution and disapproval regarding the functioning of Bosnia.” Grlic Radman expressed Croatian companies’ keenness to be involved in the restoration and reconstruction works in Azerbaijan. There are 15,300 active cases, including 997 hospitalized patients, of whom 135 are on ventilators, while 25,359 persons are self-isolating.

Kosovo
The country elected 17 mayors in the first local election round, Prime Minister Kurti was pleased with the first-round results, and the head of the Serbian List Party Rakic cast his vote. The Democratic Party of Kosovo won in five municipalities, the Democratic League of Kosovo got two municipalities, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo got two municipalities, and Serbian parties won in all 10 Serbian majority inhabited municipalities. Kurti expects to win in Prishtina and eleven more municipalities. Rakic stated he had expected a clear victory.

Montenegro
Prime Minister Krivokapic next month in his first official visit to Serbia, Deputy Prime Minister Abazovic met with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Ex-Intelligence Chief Dejan Perunic investigated over wiretapping prosecutors. Krivokapic accepted Prime Minister Brnabic’s visit invitation that would take place on November 2nd and 3rd. Sherman pointed out that the US sees Montenegro as a respected ally of the United States and NATO, supporting the country’s European path. Perunicic was detained after an eavesdropping device was found in the Special State Prosecutor’s Office.

North Macedonia
Opposition VMRO DPMNE leader Mickoski said his party has won in at least 20 municipalities, President Pendarovski has praised the progression of the local elections thus far, and SDSM’s leader Zaev is still optimistic about his victory. Mickoski said that the result “is not a final victory but is the first step in that direction.” Zaev stated he does not expect early parliamentary elections.

Serbia
European Commission has recommended opening two negotiation clusters, former State Secretary Hrkalovic arrested for connection to organized crime groups, and Europe’s first LFP battery factory to be built in the country. The EU Commission will recommend opening clusters on Competitiveness and Growth and Green Agenda and Sustainable Connectivity. Hrkalovic was arrested on charges of hiding evidence of mafia murder and forwarding classified information to a criminal organization. ElevenEs will build the factory in Subotica, aiming to reach a capacity of 16 GWh per year.