European Union

Cycling between environment and memory: the new Isonzo-Soča cross-border park

31/05/2023 -  Paola Rosà

The warm season will be an opportunity to test the new infrastructures and strategies of an EU-funded project in the municipalities of Gorizia, Nova Gorica, and Šempeter-Vrtojba, a border area that conceives itself as a single, homogeneous territory along the river Soča

Baška, tourism, its limits

25/05/2023 -  Nicole CorritoreDavide Sighele Krk

As in other areas of the Croatian coast, also in Baška, a municipality on the southern tip of the island of Krk, the local administration is facing depopulation in the winter months and saturation in the summer ones. We talked about it with its mayor, Toni Juranić

Rivers of the Balkans: the Kupa of Karlovac

23/05/2023 -  Giovanni Vale

Few cities can boast of being crossed by four rivers. Karlovac is one of them. Kupa, Dobra, Korana, and Mrežnica. A river city that saw its golden age towards the end of the eighteenth century. Our reportage continues along the Kupa River

Islands in Croatia: Otra, development agency

20/04/2023 -  Nicole CorritoreDavide Sighele Cres

In Cres and nearby Losinj there are many territorial development projects that can be promoted thanks to the support of the European Union. But nothing could be done without those who care about the future of local communities

Europe and energy communities

13/04/2023 -  Ornaldo Gjergji

Energy communities are projects in which citizens associate both as producers and consumers of clean energy at a local level. There are already many of them, including in South-Eastern Europe. They could be supported by EU cohesion policy, but that is not the case yet

Cres, the sheep, Europe

12/04/2023 -  Davide Sighele

Local official in the morning, farmer in the afternoon. Franjo Toic is the emblem of what Europe can be: local, global, with a strong civic and community sense. An encounter

Gorizia-Nova Gorica: the concrete and revolutionary utopia of EGTC GO

29/03/2023 -  Paola Rosà

EGTC GO is a European group of territorial cooperation: a tool shared between municipalities to experience territories, overcoming and transforming borders

Idomeni, Mohammed's journey back

27/03/2023 -  Tomas Miglierina

Eight years ago Mohammed had pitched a tent in Idomeni, he was one of the many Syrian refugees travelling on the Balkan route. Today he is a Belgian citizen with an EU passport. He has recently returned where this story began, in Idomeni, a place that occupied European chronicles for a long time

The gender gap in Europe’s street names is here to stay

06/03/2023 -  Lorenzo FerrariAlice Corona

In 30 of Europe's biggest cities, streets named after women make up only 9 per cent of the streets dedicated to individuals. The imbalance has started to narrow in some places, but progress is too slow: at this rate, it would take centuries to really close the gap.

Youth and work: the paradoxes of Romania

22/03/2023 -  Mihaela Iordache

In Europe, Romania has one of the lowest general unemployment rates and one of the highest youth unemployment rates. And the trend is not getting better

EUMA started observing Armenia's border with Azerbaijan

28/02/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

On 20 February the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) started observing the country’s fragile border with neighbouring Azerbaijan. EUMA is a tool to create a more conducive environment for negotiations between Yerevan and Baku

The Salute Zdravstvo project, a cross-border story

06/03/2023 -  Paola Rosà

Autism, cross-border CUP, services for pregnant women: healthcare between Italy and Slovenia. An interview

Cohesion Funds, the risk of an emergency

16/03/2023 -  Gentiola Madhi

The repeated use of structural funds by the EU institutions to deal with crises risks having repercussions on the main objective of strengthening the territorial cohesion of the European regions. A report by the European Court of Auditors

Croatia: mines still kill

15/02/2023 -  Nicole Corritore

Despite the extensive demining programme of recent years – also made possible by EU cohesion funds – the mines from the 1990s conflict still claim victims in Croatia

European Union Establishes Longer-Term Monitoring Mission in Armenia

25/01/2023 -  Onnik James Krikorian

The European Union gave the green light on 23 January to the long-term mission in Armenia (EUMA). It is a monitoring mission on the border with Azerbaijan, it will employ about a hundred people and will be temporarily led by Stefano Tomat, senior official with the EU External Action Service

EU: cohesion and depopulation

19/01/2023 -  Newsroom

In the whole of South-Eastern Europe, the data on depopulation are dramatic and require urgent reflections. In the rest of Europe the trend is less negative, but remains alarming

Croatia, the Euro and the treble

10/01/2023 -  Giovanni Vale Zagreb

For the Croatian government, 2022 was the year of the objectives achieved: entry into Schengen, the single currency, and the Peljesac bridge. But if the Croatian authorities celebrate the treble, the population looks with concern at the arrival of the single currency

Croatia joins Schengen

23/12/2022 -  Giovanni Vale Zagreb

Croatia will enter the Schengen area from January 1st. As the president of the European Commission and the Croatian Prime Minister focus on celebrations, humanitarian organisations fear an increase in violence and pushbacks against migrants

European cities, the frontier of cohesion

22/12/2022 -  Gentiola Madhi

How to ensure that cities are places of rights and quality of life and not of division and marginalisation? European institutions, through cohesion policy, are trying to find solutions

Rivers of the Balkans: the Kupa and barbed wire

21/12/2022 -  Giovanni Vale

Second episode of our reportage along the Kupa. The shock of the border in 1991, the shock of barbed wire in 2015. Yet, some are not giving up

Start-ups in Albania: a young but promising ecosystem

29/11/2022 -  Serena Epis

The start-up sector in Albania is relatively young, yet it has big innovation potential, especially in the ICT industry. An interview with Arjan Ymer, director of the business incubator Oficina

Rivers of the Balkans: the Kupa

07/12/2022 -  Giovanni Vale

We dedicate the second chapter of our report on the rivers of the Balkans to the Kupa. The journey will lead us to talk about natural parks and migrations, borders and declining industry, barbed wire and sustainable tourism

Revythoussa, the islet of gas

16/11/2022 -  Mary Drosopoulos Thessaloniki

Τhe islet of Revythoussa is a small, barren piece of land in the Gulf of Megara, west of Athens. There would be nothing special about this place, except it has become the only LNG terminal in Greece and a strategic energy stronghold for the wider Balkan region

Italy, journalism and the rule of law

17/11/2022 -  Maria Francesca Rita

In a country where media freedom and pluralism are formally protected by a solid legislative framework, the ability of journalists to conduct their investigative work still faces several challenges. We discussed these issues in an interview with Lorenzo Bagnoli, IrpiMedia journalist

Crossing borders with data journalism

14/11/2022 -  OBCT's data team

EDJNet, the European data journalism network coordinated by OBC Transeuropa, turns five. A first assessment of this experience aimed at developing the European public sphere

EU Monitoring Capacity deploys on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border

08/11/2022 -  Onnik James Krikorian

The European Monitoring Capacity (EUMCAP) is the short-term EU mission deployed on the borders between Armenia and Azerbaijan with the aim of reducing tensions between the two states and strengthening their mutual trust

Against SLAPPs, the first European conference

07/11/2022 -  Sielke Kelner

The first European conference for the fight against SLAPPs, also known as gag or reckless complaints, was held in Strasbourg on 20 October, organised by the European Center for Press and Media Freedom and the Coalition against SLAPP in Europe. The report of the event

Fair farming, Emilia Romagna and northern Albania

25/11/2022 -  Davide Sighele

RuralAlbania, a project to support small agricultural producers in northern Albania, started in September. It follows up on strong preexisting relationships, and one of the first initiatives was a study visit

Croatia hits the gas

18/10/2022 -  Giovanni Vale

Croatia is preparing to become a regional gas supply centre thanks to the regasification plant inaugurated on the island of Krk in 2021. The Plenkovic government rejoices over Zagreb's renewed strategic-energy role, but environmentalists disagree entirely

Bosnia and Herzegovina, experiments in deliberative democracy

01/10/2022 -  Serena Epis

An assembly of citizens in BiH has proposed a way out of the age-old problem of constitutional reform, pending for years after the Sejdic-Finci ruling of 2009. An interview with Nenad Stojanovic