Recently, Albanian government has intensified its declarations that it’s expecting the European Union to give way to the opening of talks for Albanian’s accession in the EU this year. These declarations have been met with cold and skeptic reactions by senior EU officials. In numerous cases, they have declared that it’s very difficult for the talks […]

A report by the High Council of Justice, HCJ, on Monday said most of the draws held in Albanian courts to allocate cases to various judges are in effect decided by the head of the court. An inspection of 30 different courts in the country by HCJ inspectors concluded that in more than 50 per […]

The budget and finance committee in Bulgaria’s parliament approved on first reading the draft bill on the prevention of corruption among senior public officials on Thursday, BGNES reported. The legislation meant to prevent high-level graft and championed by Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva was approved by the parliament’s legal affairs committee on Wednesday. The government […]

The State Commission for Prevention of Corruption has launched a procedure against SDSM spokesperson, Peter Silegov, Telegraf.mk has learnt. One of the positions he assumes, is his seat in the Parliament, and the second one is a managerial position in a law firm. Silegov has shared the letter of the anti-corruption commission to his Facebook […]

In Albania, the so called “Antimafia” law, which was voted not long ago, is being implemented by the authorities, in an effort to stop money laundering and the funding of suspicious activities. Prosecution for Serious Crimes demands the seizure of over 850 thousand Euros in the bank accounts of a woman and a man in […]

A new report warns that a lack of progress fighting corruption in five Eastern European countries hampers democratic progress and undermines the prospect of greater economic and political cooperation with the European Union. The report, released on July 2 by Transparency International, assesses dozens of institutions responsible for preventing and fighting corruption in Armenia, Azerbaijan, […]

Zagreb County Court on Friday threw out an indictment filed against Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic and his colleagues for corrupt activities, citing lack of evidence.   Zagreb County Court on Friday threw out an indictment filed by the Croatian Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime, USKOK, against Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic. Bandic, alongside […]

A coalition of NGOs in Serbia have come together to launch an attack on croneyism and political hires in the public sector in Serbia, which they describe as endemic.     The Center for Democracy, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and the Initiative for Local Development in Kraljevo have launched a joint campaign, “Stop […]

Bulgarian Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov revealed on Wednesday that the European Commission (EC) had assessed the efforts of the Bulgarian government on the judicial reform as satisfactory. The Commission noted that the adoption of the constitutional amendments and the parliamentary support for the proposed changes will be a sign whether there is a political will […]

Bosnia’s new law on whistleblower protection is one of the best in Europe. It promise a solution to endemic corruption and distrust of public authorities. Yet for citizens, there remains a fine line between seeing whistleblowers as heroes or as snitches. This view is slowly changing. In a country with perhaps one of the most […]