Democracy

In 2025, we mark the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That same year also marks the thirtieth anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica — the first genocide in Europe to be legally recognized after the Second World War.

The fate of the countries of the Western Balkans and the candidates states further East (Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia) is intertwined in the current geopolitical battle between the authoritarian countries to the East and Western democracies. 

Riga/Tallin, October 10th 2025 -The need for a more active engagement of the Baltic states in pursuing a merit-based EU enlargement was underlined by members of the Western Balkans 6 Strategy Group and their Latvian counterparts during a panel at the 2025 Riga Conference. 

A high-ranking official’s conviction sparked efforts to relativize the judiciary’s role. By blurring lines between legal and illegal, powerholders sought to ideologize justice, deny responsibility, and reshape the rule of law—further entrenching hybrid-regime dynamics.

In November 2024, the collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad killed 16 people and sparked the largest student-led protests in Serbia's modern history. Initial grief gave way to a decentralised movement that is demanding accountability, far-reaching reforms and new elections, despite brutal repression by the regime. The protests have exposed the failure of 'stabilitocracy' and brought Serbia's democratic future — and the EU's role in it — to the forefront of political debate.

On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, the Western Balkans Strategy Group, working under the auspices of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, calls on all governments of the Western Balkans to ensure appropriate commemoration of the victims of the genocide and to fully implement the United Nations General Assembly Resolution adopted on 23 May 2024.

As Europe seeks to redefine itself, it was Ukraine that dominated international discussions at the European Political Community (EPC) Summit—despite the fact that, for the first time, the event was hosted in Albania, a Western Balkan country. Very little was said about the region itself, and even that only on the media sidelines.

Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Porfirije’s April 22 visit to Moscow highlights a worrying deepening of Serbia’s alignment with Russia[...]. The visit increasingly appears to have been a prelude to, or even a soft announcement of, President Vučić’s more visible alignment with Russia, which culminated in his attendance at the 9 May celebrations in Moscow. 

While Brussels may see the Jadar lithium mining project as a strategic step toward a greener future, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić sees it as a tactical tool to reinforce his grip on power - just as hundreds of thousands rise to reclaim democracy.

The Western Balkans 6 Strategy Group strongly condemns the latest government-orchestrated attacks on civil society in Serbia and urges pro-democracy actors, EU institutions and political leaders to take a firm stand against this repression.