Governance

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg called for more Internet regulations. Far beyond these proposals, we need a public and independent archive of all online advertising, not just in times of elections

Disinformation campaigns, dubious practices on social media, murkey financing of political campaigns and lobby groups, timed hacked and leaks: new structural vulnerabilities to our democracies are there for anyone to exploit. It’s time to focus our public conversation on new policies and practices that can mitigate these risks

Parents, grandparents, children – hundreds of people have been guarding Banja Luka's main square for over six months, demanding justice for David. Regardless of who wins Sunday's elections, they are determined to go all the way

How did the private higher educational system develop in Kosovo? A brief analysis. We received it and we gladly published it

Tomislav Tomašević, 38, is the leader of the movement Zagreb je naš ("Zagreb is ours"). An activist, political scientist, and environmentalist, Tomašević represents to date the most dynamic opposition to Zagreb's unremovable mayor Milan Bandić. We met him

According to the umpteenth architectural project of the Rama government, the building housing the National Theatre risks demolition. Once again, the history and memory of the country are in danger. A comment

The Albanian civil war of 1997 was ended by an Italian-led international contingent. Twenty years after Operation Alba, the Prime Minister who promoted it has returned to the Land of the Eagles. An interview

In Armenia’s capital Yerevan, drinking fountains can be found on almost every street corner. But in the neighbouring Armavir Province to the west, water quality is so low that villages rely on private delivery lorries, bringing clean water to the villages each morning

The islanders of Croatia want to be protagonists of their future, and their voices have arrived to Zagreb. A review

Legal loopholes and clientelism affect the public administration sector in Kosovo, jeopardiziong its functioning and development

Access Info Europe, a Madrid-based organization promoting access to information, filed a petition to the European Court of Justice asking the disclosure of the legal details of the EU-Turkey deal on migration

In Ukraine, one of the sources of income for university professors are informal payments from students. But this weights on the future of the country

Is there a way to develop a country where there is virtually no trust for the state? If someone thinks so, please let us know

Kosovo's political crisis has been solved bypassing its democratic institutions, namely the Parliament, making the State weaker in the long term

The Maria Bamieh revelations on corruption inside the European rule of law mission in Kosovo, although not promptly investigated, appear to lack any real basis. Clearing the mission on a circumscribed scandal, however, will likely reduce the urgency for a much needed audition of its record overall

Yesterday we published the opinion of US judge James Hargreaves on EULEX failure. A reply

The US judge Robert Carolan, appointed by the ICO to serve in the Kosovo Constitutional Court, has withdrawn his recently announced resignations. Given his previous record, this may not be good news for the Kosovo judiciary

Kosovo just appointed the new governor of its central bank. But Bedri Hamza is too close to the current government to guarantee the necessary independence. An analysis

The section on sustainability is a fundamental part of development project proposals. But why is it so important for the donor? And is it always necessary? A comment

Big international agencies have paved the way with ad hoc funds, followed by institutional initiatives en route to EU integration. An overview of the process of regionalisation in Serbia

There are thousands of orphans in Albania. At the age of 14 they are expelled from orphanages by law, and often have no alternative to crowded dorms where, in poverty and without prospects, they remain for most of their life. A report

Kosovo is building a four-lane highway to connect the country with Albania: it will cost one billion Euro, 25% of Kosovo's 2010 budget. According to Andrea Capussela, former Head of the ICO economics unit, the project is financially unsustainable, marked by non-transparent procurement procedures and may end up sending the country into bankruptcy

Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, is a divided city but it retains a 'bastard' soul. Katharina Urbanek and Milan Mijalkovic have dedicated a book to it, looking into the meaning of the deep transformations - spatial and symbolic - that the city is currently undergoing with the controversial "Skopje 2014" plan. Our interview

When institutions are inefficient or corrupt and there is a lack of legal certainty, it's difficult to do business. Even harder for small companies. An interview with Žarko Milisavljević, president of the Association of Small and Medium-Size Enterprises and Entrepreneurs in Serbia

The city centre of Baku, Azerbaijan's capital city, has seen plenty of resident evictions and demolitions of old buildings lately, as developers clear paths for luxury real estate projects and fancy new boulevards. Although the demolition of the premises of several local NGOs raised criticism from international observers, it does not appear city authorities have any will to change their approach to urban planning

Without a common European position on the status of Kosovo, EULEX judges face many challenges and paradoxes: every single judge, for example, must choose whether or not to apply the laws passed in Pristina's parliament. We have spoken to Dragomir Yordanov, a Bulgarian judge, who worked for EULEX from the deployment of the mission till the spring of 2011

Despite the great availability of water – higher than the European average, the region finds itself unprepared for climate change, risking both droughts and floods

Can parallels be drawn between the extraordinary events involving many Arab countries and what happened in Eastern Europe in 1989? The question is open for debate, but is certainly a chance for (re)thinking the common Mediterranean space. A comment

Informality allows people to change their immediate circumstances for the better, but it locks the state and society in a vicious circle of reproduction of a weak state, promising insecurity for the majority and prosperity for the few. From openDemocracy

In early July, a series of political incidents in Mitrovica resulted in a death and several injured people. After ten years of conflict over Serbian-controlled north Kosovo, the divided city of Mitrovica emerges again on the Kosovo and international political agenda