Although the local election campaign has yet to start, the opposition Vetevendosje party has already named most of its candidates for mayoral seats.

Religious minorities in the Balkans still struggle with a degree of discrimination and with a lack of official cooperation in regaining assets confiscated by the communist regimes, a US State Department report says.

Despite progress in terms of legislation safeguarding equal rights for all religious minorities, most Balkan states still discriminate against some groups and lag behind in returning property confiscated by communist regimes, the US State Department said in its 2016 report on Religious Freedom, released on Tuesday.

By: Krenar Gashi

Kosovo’s current crisis is a result of local power struggles and bungled foreign interference – and until people realize that, the political system will remain damaged.

Since the snap parliamentary election in June, Kosovo has been struggling to constitute its state institutions. Parliament only kicked off its constitutive session last week. But it was unable to complete it as no majority could be formed to vote for a speaker and a presidium.

The European Union said Kosovo MPs should end the political deadlock preventing the formation of a new government because the country has “no time to lose” to press ahead with vital reforms.

“Kosovo has no time to lose,” the EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy office told BIRN as Kosovo remained without a government two months after holding general elections.

Kosovo's parliament failed to vote for a new speaker for a fourth time because MPs from the PAN coalition, which won most seats at the last election, declined to attend the session again.

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Kosovo Albanian and Serb workers at the giant Trepca mining complex have a pessimistic outlook about the future of the mine because of its financial troubles and disputes between Pristina and Belgrade.

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Ethnic Serb MPs will support the PAN coalition’s candidate for Kosovo parliament speaker, but that does not mean they will join the coalition led by the party of President Hashim Thaci.

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The Kosovo Assembly postponed its vote to elect a new speaker to Friday after the coalition with the most seats decided not to attend the parliamentary session.

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Belgrade admits that Kosovo could soon become a member of Interpol, but its fear that this might lead to the arrest of members of Serbian security forces are misplaced, experts said.

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