In an attempt to resist the Ottoman invasion of Albania, Christian military and political commander Gjergj Kastrioti, better known by the Turkish name of Skanderbeg, led the major Albanian rebellion that unfolded between 1443 and 1468. This article will present his 25-year-long revolt, during which Skanderbeg prevented the Ottomans from fully subjugating the southern Adriatic coast of the Balkans.

Is Serbia really a democracy? The country’s constitution guarantees rights such as media freedom, freedom of assembly and association, and equality and non-discrimination, and elections are regularly held. Nevertheless, the situation in Serbia seems very different, with continuously shrinking democratic practices. Analysts, watchdogs, and the same Serbian civil society have repeatedly asked for EU representatives to recall the Serbian President and Government to respect democratic values and freedoms. However, for years, the answer has been soft and mostly meant to maintain stability in the region rather than generating a true regime change.

This article will address the question of democracy in Serbia, understanding the EU’s role in creating a so-called “Stabilitocracy”, highlighting its benefits and risks.

The strategic geographical and political position of the WB6 gives a multifaceted character to Russia’s interest, exploiting a broad range of ties and strategies to exert influence in the region. While Russia does not uniformly dominate across all six countries, its presence still creates a significant variable in the region’s geopolitics.

Russian influence in the WB6 merits careful analysis in terms of its modus operandi and its differentiated impact across countries.

This article will break down Russian influence in the WB6, highlighting its historical legacy, its motivations, and its forms in each country.

The fast privatisation of the economy and services, in a system that still lacked a solid rule of law, led the way to state capture and widespread corruption. Today, high corruption levels still pervade the Albanian public sector, compromising the functioning of procedures such as public appointments, procurements, and trials, ultimately benefiting a small political and economic elite rather than consolidating a fair democracy.

This article will delve into Albania’s problem of widespread corruption, the introduction of SPAK and the vetting process, and their achievements, consequences and criticisms, trying to understand whether these instruments can be considered as drivers for a radical long-term institutional change or just a momentary “clean-up” of the bad apples.

Montenegro and Kosovo are the only economies that use the euro without having a formal agreement with the EU. Instead, they adopted the euro unilaterally. This means that they do not mint euro coins, they do not have access to the European Central Bank (ECB) and its services, and they do not participate in eurozone decision-making. Yet, the euro is the sole official tender in both economies.

This article will delve into the unique cases of Montenegro and Kosovo’s use of the Euro currency. Taking off from the history of their euro adoption, linked to the collapse of Yugoslavia, and a quick dip into EU law, the article will build on the benefits and challenges of such a policy choice and the consequences for Montenegro’s and Kosovo’s potential EU accession process.

Signed in December 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement is widely regarded as a diplomatic breakthrough and a long-term structural constraint for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although it brought an immediate end to a 3-year-long devastating conflict, it also created an institutional architecture that continues to influence the country’s political trajectory in complex and somewhat limiting ways (Bose, 2003). 2025 marked its 30th anniversary, making it salient to understand its evolution throughout 3 decades in order to assess Bosnia and Herzegovina’s prospects for peace, democratic consolidation, and EU integration.

After briefly explaining the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this article will outline the characteristics of the Dayton Agreement, its implications in the present times, and questions about its effects in the future.

The history of bilateral disputes involving North Macedonia is still ongoing and obstructing the country’s path towards EU accession.

From the outside, for someone who is not accustomed to the history of the Balkan countries, such disputes might sound silly and unimportant, failing to understand the real issues that lie behind.  This article will try to explain the disputes between North Macedonia and its neighbouring countries, Greece and Bulgaria, in the clearest and most straightforward way possible, outlining their causes, developments, consequences, and success stories of resolution.

As the first publication of Western Balkans Untangled, this article aims to recap the history of the six Western Balkan countries’ EU accession process, hoping to provide more accessible insights to the EU civil society on what is going on not so far away from them.

Starting with a general summary of the history of the EU enlargement process to the Western Balkans, the article will later delve into the individual countries’ paths, struggles, and current positioning on the accession steps. Lastly, an overview of the risks and opportunities for the EU and the WB, together with some hopes for the future, will clarify how an EU enlargement to the region would affect both sides.