Overall, Central and Eastern Europe is very strongly hit in the current economic crisis that had divided the European Union as well. In some countries, which are in a nation-building state, candidates have expressed unfaltering support for nationalistic parties. In the more established countries, such as the Czech Republic or Hungary, the political elite is divided among ideological, not ethnic or nationalistic lines, and the political elite is in a deep crisis.

Macedonians headed to the polls on Sunday to choose the country’s president from seven candidates and 84 mayors from 365 candidates, and members of the local councils. The incumbent president, Branko Crvenkovski did not run for re-election. Gjorgje Ivanov, the candidate of the strongest party in the Macedonian parliament, VMRO-DPMNE, won the first round of the [...]

Tony Barber writes about the latest round of the great Balkans naming game: Macedonia (a country that could not enter NATO and is not allowed to use its name in the United States because of a Greek veto over it) decided to rename an EU-funded cross-Balkans infrastructure project after its great conquering ruler, Alexander the [...]

There are 47 countries so far that have recognized Kosovo as an independent state. The most recent EU state to recognize it has been Malta on 15 August, the next EU state that has announced this move is Portugal.
You can follow the recognition process on this site. Probably the most important recognisitios are coming from [...]

Macedonia is a country recognized by 120 members of the United Nations and an applicant to EU and NATO. Another EU-member has been wrecking the enlargement strategy by a naming game, refusing the accept the name of the country.
A few months ago I not only found the obstruction of Greece shameful and tinted by the [...]

A Fistful of Euros has an excellent round-up to the Second Balkans war. This is the dispute that poisons relationships between Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria. David Muir draws an analogy between the case of Macedonia and the Georgian-Russian war. I had made a less weaker link between this events before, and even if the analogy [...]

The Foreign Policy Passport blog has an excellent review on the lengthy United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report on the changing nature of criminal activities in the Balkans. These countries that are struggling with an economic transition at the same time with a post-war trauma have lower violent crime rates than Western Europe [...]

The Foreign Policy blog, Passport has an excellent round-up on the early elections in Macedonia. The newly established state that became sovereign after the break-up of Yugoslavia is struggling to build up a national identity that encompasses its ethnic groups. Most of Macedonia’s neighbors have a hidden territorial claim over the new state. Although Macedonia [...]

The Central European Initiative is a loose co-operation of 18 states in the region. Given the heterogenity of the group, its summit are never spectacular, and guest lists and the not present members are almost as interesting as the statements. The 15th summit had an important guest: Abdullah Gül, the president of Turkey.
The Initative either [...]

The Central European Initiative is holding its two-days summit on this weekend. The rather loose regional co-operation is not very high on the international political agenda. The first news I found in English was from the Chinese Xinhua agency. The only news they produced on the Hungarian radio is who abstained from the meeting.
The Central [...]