Albania

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

Albanian premier Edi Rama said that relations with neighbouring Greece are on the mend as the two countries agreed to resolve their maritime border dispute at the UN’s International Court of Justice.

US presidential candidate Joe Biden published letters of support for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania as he seeks diaspora voters’ support in his bid to defeat Donald Trump at the polls next month.

Albania’s General Prosecutor has caused a stir by claiming that the town of Elbasan is in the grip of crime gangs – but many locals doubt anything will be done – and feel too frightened to speak out.

Critics say a costly and ineffective attempt to catch waste on two Albanian rivers is indicative of a piecemeal approach to waste management.

Governments in South-east Europe have ‘quarantined’ human rights in the pandemic – but civil society groups and activists are pushing back, protesting about backsliding and filling the void.

With the number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases continuing to grow in the region, some governments are imposing tougher measures to curb its spread, such as making masks mandatory outdoors.

The economic damage caused by lockdowns and sharp falls in exports, FDI and tourism is severe, and it may take years in some countries until the full recovery.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

Why would a Zimbabwean health minister vouch for a tiny Albanian pharmaceutical firm when trying to stock up on medical equipment?

Questions are being asked of the Albanian government’s decision to conceal the details of more than a dozen COVID-related public tenders worth millions of euros.

The European Union’s enlargement commissioner said he is “very hopeful” that Albania and North Macedonia will start accession talks in 2020 - but other Balkan states received more critical appraisals in the EU’s annual progress reports.

The failed 2009 deal should serve as a cautionary tale as the Albanian and Greek governments seek to discuss their respective claims in the Ionian Sea.

At the behest of the ruling Socialists, parliament in Tirana has pushed through important changes to the election code – without first seeking a cross-party consensus, as was the case before.

Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Friday that Albania will not follow Donald Trump’s call for it to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as that would mean breaking EU policy on the issue.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

In the world of garbage treatment in Albania, one man’s name keeps cropping up. His connections cross the country’s bitter political divide.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

President Hashim Thaci said the leaking of what are claimed to be war crime prosecutors’ files to Kosovo Liberation Army veterans could harm former guerrillas’ defence in trials at the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers.

The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office accused the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans’ Organisation of undermining justice after three batches of court documents allegedly related to war crime cases were leaked.

After a series of coordinated arrests all over Europe and in Dubai, Interpol has hailed the destruction of major drugs smuggling gang, called Kompania Bello, which brought huge shipments of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.

Albania’s national asylum commission has rejected an appeal against a decision not to award asylum to an alleged Turkish Gulenist, Selami Simsek – raising fears that warming ties to the Turkish government are influencing Albania’s human rights obligations.

Seven international rights organisations on Wednesday called on parliament in Albania not to press on with a law targeting the online media that both the Albanian President and the Venice Commission have criticised as flawed.

The EU-founded Energy Community said that the Albanian authorities awarded a contract to build a hydropower plant in breach of the European bloc’s directive on assessing the environmental impact.

Relatives of children who have been stuck for almost two years in the Kurdish-run Al-Hol camp in Syria after the defeat of the so-called Islamic State rallied in the Albanian capital Tirana for their repatriation.

A round-up of Balkan Insight's favourite photographs of the week.

Amid growing regulatory threats to online media in Albania and attempts by the media community to self-regulate, BIRN’s new report reveals the key role that internet governance plays in media freedom.

The three countries are at the top of a list published by the European Environment Agency showing that people in Eastern Europe have higher chances of dying as a result of pollution than those in the Western part of the continent.

Government and opposition are at loggerheads after the International Court of Arbitration told Albania to pay a road construction company 44 million dollars in compensation.

US-EU differences over Belgrade-Pristina talks are adding fresh fuel to regional tensions in the Western Balkans – and opening up more space for other foreign influences.