As Albania prepares to vote next week on a crucial reform of the judiciary aimed at curbing corruption, EU and US diplomats have stepped up pressure in a bid to ensure the legislation is adopted.   Ahead of the vote on June 21, EU and US diplomats have been seeking to convince MPs from the […]

All 13,700 public institutions in Romania registered on the Ministry of Finance’s platform of budgetary transparency will use all the system’s facilities and fully disclose their budgets by August 15, said Finance Minister Anca Dragu. Some 10,000 public institutions are currently active on this platform. This means they publish their periodical financial reports and register […]

As the West develops its strategy to deal with a resurgent Russia, more must be done to focus on the so-called gray areas lying between the Euro-Atlantic community and Russia: Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova. These countries, while not in NATO or the EU, strive to join these organizations someday. Russia is doing all it can […]

Nine years after joining the EU, Romania is continuing its fight against corruption, as well as tackling the challenge of recovering the proceeds of crime. Experts say that its judicial reform experience could serve as an example to future EU member states.     Romania’s difficult transformation process from a country engulfed in corruption to one in which […]

The United States has urged Western Balkan countries to intensify efforts to consolidate their democracies. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland on Sunday started a Balkan tour in Kosovo and will follow with visits to Albania, Macedonia and Serbia. She urged Kosovo to further its dialogue with Serbia and also approve a border demarcation […]

Firms belonging to current or former Bosnian officials received public procurement contracts worth at least 85 million KM over the a five-year period. The East Sarajevo public health clinic was upgraded by Marvel, a local firm owned by Savo Lalović, who is also a councilor on the ticket of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats […]

Prosecutors with the Bucharest Court of Appeal and police officers investigating economic crimes raided on Thursday the premises of the Marriott Hotel in Bucharest, in a tax evasion case involving damages to the state budget of over EUR1,600,000. There are three suspects in the case. The prosecutors carried out searches at the headquarters of SC […]

An investigation by OCCRP partner the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) has revealed evidence indicating that a Kazakh behind a multi-billion dollar banking scam secretly owned one of Belgrade’s most popular concert venues. Using British court hearings, as well as documents obtained through the OCCRP’s Investigative Dashboard tool, BIRN journalists show links suggesting jailed banker […]

Romania’s Constitutional Court has ruled that mayors who are handed suspended prison sentences for corruption must resign. President Klaus Iohannis called on the court to overrule legislation passed by Parliament in December that allowed mayors to keep their posts even after they had received a suspended sentence. The court agreed with Iohannis, and interim court […]

  Whistle-blowers leaking information in the public interest play a crucial role in upholding democracies, and must therefore be better protected from prosecution, reprisals and threats. This was the key message voiced by many MEPs in Wednesday evening’s debate with Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen and Ivan Korčok from the Slovak Presidency of the Council on […]