New Eastern Europe

At a wedding in Sarajevo, a melody rises that my grandmother would have recognized without being told its name. She never visited Bosnia. She was from somewhere I have never been — Şumen, in Bulgaria, and before that Selanik, before Selanik became Thessaloniki and the map changed beneath the family’s feet. But the melody would have been hers too. It was everyone’s, and no one...

In the Western Balkans, employers are saying the same thing: they cannot find workers. Construction firms delay projects, manufacturers turn down orders, and service sectors operate below capacity. “Employers across the region are struggling to fill vacancies while our own citizens remain in demand abroad,” Amer Kapetanovic, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Counc...

In the canon of European development stories, Romania should be a success. It has fertile agricultural land, a large and relatively young population, a tradition of strong technical education, an IT sector that consistently outperforms the country’s economic weight, abundant natural resources, and a diaspora of several million citizens who have built careers and businesses ac...

As snow descended on the streets of Rēzekne on a chilly February night, approximately two dozen men and women of all ages prepared for the Rēzekne Region Mixed Choir’s rehearsal, making their way to a spot on the room’s wooden risers. Their smiling faces and cheerful laughter filled the room before they even sang a note. The unity, joy and love of country exuded by the choir’...

“The National Assembly has just taken an important step toward ensuring greater success for Slovenia in the future. However, this was not the final step toward Slovenia gaining a government of development,” said Janez Janša immediately after a secret ballot on Friday in the Slovenian parliament. This led to him being elected as the country’s new prime minister by a vote of 51...