The appointment of Matthew Palmer as the US special envoy to the Western Balkans proves how much it is important for the American diplomacy that Kosovo and Serbia reach a long-lasting solution, a retired US Army General Ben Hodges has told the Voice of America (VOA) on Thursday, adding Belgarde and Pristina leaders should have some economic incentives to offer to their peoples "immediately" to persuade them that a solution they will reach is for their benefit.

Last year 51.000 persons have left Serbia and went to the EU countries, while the highest number of migrants comes from Albania 62.000 and Bosnia and Herzegovina 53.500. Meanwhile, 34.500 persons have left Kosovo, 24.300 North Macedonia and 3.000 persons left Montenegro, KoSSev portal reports referring to Eurostat data.

The highest percentage of Albanian citizens moved to Italy (23.000), Greece (17.000) and Germany (10.000). People from Bosnia and Herzegovina mainly moved to Germany (16.000) followed by Slovenia and Croatia.

NATO deputy spokesperson and the head of Press and Media Piers Cazalet told BBC in Serbian on Thursday there was no health risk from depleted uranium used in the Alliance’s bombing of former Yugoslavia during the 1998-1999 was in Kosovo.

Serbia’s media reported that the German soldiers who took part in NATO missions in the Balkans demanded compensation for their exposure to depleted uranium.

The Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) in its analysis entitled "Western Balkans Foreign Fighters and Homegrown Jihadis: Trends and Implications" reports that since 2012, about 1,070 citizens of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro travelled to Syria and Iraq, primarily joining the Islamic State, and to a lesser extent al-Qaeda (Jabhat al Nusra, more recently rebranded as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham - HTS).

Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic said on Monday that no one can say precisely whether Serbia will become a member of the EU by 2025, B92 reports. 2025 was in the past mentioned by European Commission (EC) President Jean-Claude Juncker, but only as a tentative date.

Dacic said that Serbia will do everything in its power, administratively and politically in terms of implementing reforms, to be ready for membership adding that it will depend on the EU itself.

Reconciliation with neighbours is important and requires great efforts, European Council President Donald Tusk said in Warsaw on Saturday, warning that “the historical baggage will evoke demons” if no effort is invested in this process.

“I see what is happening as in some places e.g. in the Balkans, where the situation is almost boiling over,” said Tusk, speaking at a ceremony of Poland's newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza 30th anniversary where he was rewarded the Man of the Year title.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says there are
two options for leaders in the Western Balkans - to target high or to do
nothing.

"If you are a political leader in a complicated country and a complicated region, you can choose to target high and achieve the best for your people and country, or to decide to wait for better times," Mogherini said.

The European Parliament’s former rapporteur on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Doris Pack, spoke out on Tuesday against changes to borders in the Balkans.

Former MEP expressed surprise over the fact that the Presidents of Serbia and Kosovo, Aleksandar Vucic and Hashim Thaci, support the proposed territory swap between Serbia and Kosovo.

Donald Trump, the US President, told Zoran Zaev, North Macedonia's Prime Minister, that his deal with Greece on the country’s new name was the greatest achievement in the Balkans since the 1995 Dayton Agreement which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Beta news agency reported.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission (EC), said in Brussels on Wednesday that there was a high risk of the restoration of the 1990s if the Western Balkans countries did not have a perspective of joining the European Union, the FoNet news agency reported.

Speaking after talks with the Slovenian President Borut Pahor, Juncker said the Western Balkans’ chances of joining the bloc had to be real, adding he believed “it was the question of war or peace.”