Albania
Socialist Party won the election, Rama about to launch the procedure to dismiss President Ilir Meta, and 500,000 Albanians emigrated in the last decade to the EU. SP has secured nearly half of the votes and enough seats in parliament to govern alone. Before the elections, Meta left SP and formed the Socialist Movement for Integration. The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies estimated that people mostly left the country for family reasons and work.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Some 250,000 jobs at risk due to the pandemic, China donated 50,000 Doses of Vaccine, and the Federation of BiH sold 15.3 million euro ($18 million) of seven-year T-notes. The International Labor Organization and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development identified the pandemic devastated trade, transport, and accommodation sectors. Bids placed in the auction held on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange sold at an average accepted price of 99.8921% of par, yielding 1.066%.
Croatia
A National Recovery and Resilience Plan Draft was adopted, amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act, and Prime Minister Plenkovic discussed migration issues with EU Commissioner Johansson. The Plan is prepared in consultation with the European Commission, willing to allocate some $7 billion from Recovery and Resilience Mechanism over the next six years. The amendments would address a systematic problem with dual-citizenship convicts requesting to serve their prison sentence in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The discussion went over the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, aiming to halt arrivals of irregular migrants and preparing the EU for efficient migration management.
Kosovo
The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo offered to cooperate on dialogue with Serbia, Prime Minister Kurti refused to continue the dialogue, and the opposition asked Kurti to clarify his position on the Washington Agreement. Haradinaj offered to cooperate with the ruling Vetevendosje on the dialogue with Serbia before the meeting in June. Kurti said he would not attend a meeting on May 11th proposed by EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell. The opposition’s initiative reflected Kurti’s statement on not implementing the agreement.
Montenegro
Talks with EU on Chinese loan refinancing resumed, a new commission to solve border dispute with Croatia, and Port Bar net profit rise in 2020. Economic Development Minister Milatovic said the government is negotiating with the EU institutions to refinance the Chinese loan with cheaper European loans. Prime Minister Krivokapic accused the former government of not trying enough to solve the dispute over the Prevlaka peninsula near Dubrovnik, jeopardizing the country’s EU perspective. The port recorded a net profit of 119,200 euro ($143,940) in 2020, up from 49,500 euro profit in the previous year.
North Macedonia
Energy treaty with Greece signed, a Bulgarian developer built a solar plant, and police have broken up a well-structured criminal ring. The new pipeline will cover a total of 160 km distance, starting from the Nea Mesimvria area of Thessaloniki and ending up at Shtip. Bulgaria-based solar developer Solarpro Holding has won a tender to build a 50 MW solar power plant providing 18% of the annual revenues to the Elektrani na Severna Makedonija for the next 35 years. The arrests followed raids on a dozen homes and other locations near Skopje, arresting nine people, including a police officer, for drug, weapons, and ammunition trafficking.
Serbia
President Vucic reflected on Kosovo’s non-paper, Prime Minister Brnabic said negotiation position ready for Chapter 27 discussing environment, and US Ambassador Godfrey said the China and Russia “malignant influence” is blocking the country’s EU perspective. Vucic said that the non-paper contains “many things” attractive, but also a section on recognition of Kosovo, which would “horrify the Serbs.” Godfrey said that the US interest is to see the country as the political and economic leader in the region developing as a democratic European state at peace with its neighbors.