The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 19 January 2024 to 26 January 2024. Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates with a focus on Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.
Hungary - 25 January 2024
Turkey's president finally approved Sweden's bid to join NATO on Thursday, ending months of delay and leaving only Hungary standing in the way of Stockholm's membership of the military alliance; see here.
Croatia - 25 January 2024
Ivan Turudic looks set to become Croatia's new attorney general after being selected as the favourite for the post by the government – although some opposition MPs expressed dissent; see here.
Bosnia - 25 January 2024
Comment: The narrative from Bosnia to Gaza is not just a recounting of personal trauma; it is a call to action, an urgent plea for a world where the innocence of children is safeguarded and the echoes of genocide are silenced forever; see here.
Greece - 25 January 2024
Greek media outlets and journalists involved in revealing the wiretapping scandal testified in an Athens court on Thursday on the lawsuit issued against them by the PM's nephew and former secretary; see here.
Bosnia - 24 January 2024
Bosnia will miss the chance to start EU accession talks this year if it does not adopt the laws demanded by the EU within the next six weeks, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, warned during their visit to Sarajevo on Tuesday; see here.
Bulgaria - 24 January 2024
Cryptocurrency lender Nexo is seeking $3 billion in damages from Bulgaria over an aborted criminal investigation that the company alleges scuppered its plans for a U.S. stock market listing and a soccer sponsorship deal, legal filings seen by Reuters show; see here.
Greece - 23 January 2024
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Greece was responsible for the degrading treatment of an Afghan asylum-seeker who arrived as an unaccompanied minor and was not given suitable accommodation; see here.
Moldova - 23 January 2024
The former head of the Moldovan government, Vlad Filat, is to testify in his trial for alleged involvement in the ‘Grant Theft’ case, in which $1 billion was stolen from Moldovan banks; see here.
Montenegro - 23 January 2024
Montenegro’s Justice Ministry refused to extradite Turkish citizen Binali Camgoz, the alleged leader of a criminal organisation who is accused of killing two people, because of his disability and Kurdish ethnicity; see here.
Romania - 19 January 2024
Following public spats with Hungary and Poland, Pfizer and its German mRNA partner BioNTech have kicked off legal proceedings against Romania. The lawsuit marks the latest move in Pfizer’s campaign to press countries to honour COVID-19 vaccine contracts inked by the European Commission in May 2021; see here.