A press review presented in partnership with The Balkan Courier.
The crisis between Moscow and the West over Ukraine has again shone the spotlight on the strategic issue of the Black Sea. In the context of current tensions, this maritime space could become the scene of a large-scale air-naval conflict. Concerns are growing in Bulgaria as in Romania.
Romania must be prepared for the scenario of an attack in Ukraine, warned Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, who is calling for a reinforcement of defense capabilities on NATO’s eastern flank. Softer towards Russia, Bulgaria prefers to talk diplomacy and de-escalation, but the government of Kiril Petkov prepare for all eventualities.
Sex slave route from Romania to UK
In a survey titled Sold: Sex slaves next door, the BBC reveals how young Romanian girls get caught up in the UK sex industry, captives and forced to provide sexual services. A route that begins, most of the time, when they are still children in Romania, where the authorities prefer to close their eyes to a phenomenon that is all the more frightening because it is difficult to measure its extent.
The Albanian government has closed the country’s schools for at least three days this week: with temperatures dropping to -18°C at night, there is insufficient infrastructure for children to study in safety. The parents protest and denounce the chronic lack of investment in education.
Pollution: faced with the emergency, mobilization
Air pollution in the Balkans is a scourge that causes thousands of deaths a year, more than 30,000 in the region, according to the European Environment Agency. It also contributes to reducing life expectancy by 0.4 to 1.3 years and costs billions of euros in health expenditure. The main source is the old coal-fired power stations on which the Balkan countries still depend to generate their electricity. How to get out of coal? For now, most governments in the region do not have a plan.
In Serbia, a new environmentalist and citizen coalition called Moramo (“We must”) has been formed to run in the next local elections on April 3. Their objective: to fight against air, water and soil pollution and for the protection of natural, public and cultural assets, for social justice, in favor of better education, decentralization, local economic development “. It brings together the citizen party Ne davimo Beograd, the Ecological Uprising movement, the Together for Serbia party and the Aktion civic platform.
For thirty years, Montenegro has defined itself as an “ecological state”. However, around cities, along roads, but also along rivers and in the heart of mountains, waste accumulates. In Nikšić, volunteer “ecopatriots” decided to take matters into their own hands. Reporting.