Commissioner Hahn and High Representative Mogherini present the enlargement Strategy. Photo: Elyxandro Cegarra/Beta

Winners and Losers

The European Commission has presented its new enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans, offering a realistic assessment of the problems which the region’s membership hopefuls need to resolve before they can hope to join.

Inevitably, the new strategy has clearly highlighted a winner-loser divide in the Western Balkans, with some countries recognized as being at the front of the membership race and others clearly lagging, with seemingly dubious chances of moving forward. We analyse the prospects of different Balkan hopefuls in more detail.

Read more: EU Strategy Exacerbates Winner-Loser Divide in Balkans (February 7, 2018)

Aleksandar Vucic, Serba’s president attend the event in Belgrade with Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska on February 1. Photo: Beta

Importing Problems

The declared approach of the European Commission’s enlargement strategy is to assess the readiness of individual candidate countries on the basis of their own merit and reform progress. In this way, the EU hopes to reward those willing to reform and encourage some healthy competition between accession candidates.

While such an approach makes sense in most ways, it also comes with potential problems. As Majda Ruge writes in her comment piece for Balkan Insight, the EU still risks importing ‘Cyprus-like’ problems into the Union.

Read more: EU Should Beware of ‘Cyprus Scenario’ in the Balkans (February 5, 2018)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Photo: Anadolu

Adjusting the Course

What does 2018 hold in store for Turkey? Our latest analysis suggests that, amid economic troubles, a wide societal divide in society and, not least, the approach of important elections in 2019, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan may choose to ease the crackdown launched after the failed 2016 coup.

Meanwhile, tensions with Turkey’s traditional Western allies – particularly the US and EU member states – will likely continue to worsen, while the rapprochement with Russia seems set to continue. We analyse in more detail.

Read more: Erdogan Could Ease Crackdown as Turkey’s Woes Mount (February 6, 2018)

The US embassy’s Facebook page posted a cartoon of US ambassador Donald Lu in a small boat, fishing. The cartoon was a referrence to Lu’s statement that he expect Albania’s fight against organised crime and corruption would result in the arrest and prosecution of “several big fish”.

Work in Progress

Albania’s politicians are good at ‘talking the talk’ of fighting organized crime and corruption and implementing judicial reforms, but are they willing to ‘walk the walk’?

In 2016 Albanian politicians adopted a crucial justice reform package intended to facilitate a major reorganization of the justice system. The reform package was adopted following significant international involvement and pressure. Yet since then, little has been done to implement it. It seems that while the US and EU, along with the Albanian public, want to see concrete results, Albania’s political elite may be content to continue ‘working on them’, rather than delivering.

Read more: Albania’s ‘War on Crime’ Leaves ‘Big Fish’ Untouched (February 6, 2018)

Two soldiers prepare to lay a wraith at the Holocaust Memorial during a commemoration ceremony, in Bucharest, October 8, 2015. Photo: Inquam Photos

Old Rhetoric, New Media

As the horrors of the Second World War slowly but surely fade from living memory, there is growing evidence that the countries of the Balkans, much like others in Europe, need to do more to tackle some issues, such as anti-Semitism, which should arguably have been stamped out once and for all.

In Romania, our investigation reveals anti-Semites increasingly turning to social media to spread their message, with the wider public typically turning a blind eye to such hate speech. Experts warn that the country must tackle such talk actively, as well as facing up to its troubled past.

Read more: Romania Urged to Tackle Online Anti-Semitism (February 7, 2018)

Group photo taken at Oasa medical camp.

Faith and Medicine

In a sign of the changing times in the formerly Communist countries of Eastern Europe, we look into the newly emerging interplay between faith and medicine in Romania.

A small but increasing number of Romanian medics are discovering their faith, including within the context of their medical work. In its more extreme form, this has given rise to something called ‘Christian medicine’. While some welcome a greater role for faith in established medicine, others warn against its involvement. We explore this debate.

Read more: Orthodox Religion, Unorthodox Medicine: The Rise of Romania’s Christian Doctors (February 5, 2018)