Balkan developments

published on 6/16/23 12:23 PM

Authorities in Turkey to work on new Constitution

After a cabinet meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey should replace its ‎military-written 1982 constitution with a more civil, liberal and democratic one. ‎

The changes will be on the topics of freedom, the right to security and a fair trial, freedom of ‎speech, as well as the rights of women and people with disabilities. The strengthening of these ‎rights and freedoms faced obstacles in the bureaucracy for their proper implementation. ‎

The draft of the new constitution was drawn up in accordance with the observations and ‎reports of the international human rights monitoring mechanisms, in cooperation with several ‎human rights groups, Erdogan pointed out, stressing that the presidential system of ‎government introduced by him personally would be preserved in the country, writes ‎sabah.com.tr.‎

Analysts predict difficult formation of a ruling coalition in Montenegro

The pro-European movement "Europe Now" won the parliamentary elections in Montenegro ‎with 25.6% of the vote. With 23.2 percent of the ballots, second is the Democratic Party of ‎Socialists, whose leader until recently was Milo Djukanovic. Third is the pro-Russian and pro-‎Serbian coalition "For the Future of Montenegro" with 14.7% support.‎

The URA coalition of Prime Minister Dritan Abazović and the Democrats of former ‎Parliament Speaker Aleksa Bečić won 12.5%. Unexpectedly, the Bosniak Party won over 7 ‎percent.‎

‎Thus, 9 of the 15 parties that participated in the elections enter the 81 local parliaments. This ‎makes it extremely difficult to predict what the future ruling coalition will look like, vijesti.me ‎notes. ‎

After a delay due to the teachers' strike in Romania, the prime ministers rotated

With 290 votes "for", 95 "against" and no "abstentions", the two houses of the Romanian ‎Parliament elected the new Romanian government headed by the social democrat Marcel ‎Ciolacu. Thus, the rotation of prime ministers, which is being done for the first time in ‎Romania and was agreed upon in November 2021, has successfully ended. ‎

Former Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca was previously elected as the President of the Senate. ‎

In the new cabinet, the 18 ministries are divided equally and each party has one deputy prime ‎minister, Digi24 TV reported. ‎

Dissatisfied with the redistribution of ministries, the Democratic Union of Hungarians left the ‎coalition of National Liberals and Social Democrats. Ciolacu stated that through European ‎funds and loans, he expects 50 billion euros to be invested in the Romanian economy in 12 ‎months.‎

Greece's chief banker calls Greeks "champions of tax evasion"

Tax evasion in Greece exceeds 60 billion euros per year. This was revealed by the governor of ‎the Central Bank, Yannis Stournaras. "Officially declared incomes in the country amount to ‎‎80 billion euros, and consumption - to 140 billion euros. This consumption is not accompanied ‎by a decrease in savings, which actually continue to grow," Stournaras told in.gr. ‎

‎"We are the European champions of tax evasion, despite the progress made in increasing tax ‎revenues as a percentage of the GDP," Stournaras stressed. He expressed confidence that the ‎country will regain its investment rating this year, and reiterated that ‎Greece needs a ‎government with a long-term horizon.‎

The EU convenes a crisis meeting of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo ‎Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Brussels

Pristina has banned Serbian goods and cars with Serbian registration from entering Kosovo. ‎EU spokesman Peter Stano called on Kosovo and Serbia to refrain from actions that increase ‎tensions.‎

The statement comes after Serbian police arrested three Kosovo police officers on June 14. ‎According to Belgrade, they entered Serbian territory. Pristina said they were attacked and ‎kidnapped from the territory of Kosovo. ‎

Previously, on June 13, in Kosovska Mitrovica, the Kosovo authorities arrested Milun ‎Milenkovic-Lune. For Pristina, he is the organizer of the Serbian protests against the ‎introduction of the newly elected Albanian mayors into the Serbian municipalities. ‎

Stano said that because of the events, the EU introduced sanctions against Kosovo Prime ‎Minister Albin Kurti, BTA reports. Kurti proposed a 5-point plan to resolve the crisis and ‎withdraw the "violent groups" in Northern Kosovo.‎

Compiled by Ivo Ivanov

Published by Rositsa Petkova