Southeast & Eastern Europe

The Kremlin denies sovereignty and territorial integrity not only to Ukraine but also to Georgia. But unlike Ukraine, the ruling Georgian Dream party follows the Russian playbook and uses the Russian threat to maintain authoritarian power. 

Massive vote buying overshadowed the 2024 elections in Moldova - over 35 million euros were spent on influencing voters. Robert Sperfeld and Julian Gröger spoke to former State Secretary Mariana Lucreteanu about coming to terms with the scandal and the lessons learned for the 2025 parliamentary elections.

On May 11, 2025, Albania will hold parliamentary elections, the first since officially opening EU accession negotiations. While some significant changes mark this election—most notably, diaspora voting and partial candidate list openness—major systemic factors remain unchanged. The Socialist Party (SP), in power since 2013, appears poised for an unprecedented fourth mandate.

The migration agreement between Germany and Georgia has been in place since December 2023, and Georgia has been considered a safe country of origin for just as long. However, the increasingly repressive policies in Tbilisi make it necessary to rethink the German view of the country.

The brutal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and its consequences for Ukrainian society and the future of Europe are the subject of this dossier. Ukrainian partners and pro-green voices from Germany and Europe comment on current developments.

Halida Uzunović, a Bosnian war survivor, talks about her experiences during the Bosnian war, especially the harrowing events in Foča that became a byword for brutal ethnic cleansing. The former head of the Foča War Victims Association also reflects on her commitment to breaking the silence about these atrocities and to advocating for truth and justice for the survivors and victims, despite their ongoing social stigmatisation and the denial by some political actors that war crimes occurred.

Azerbaijan has strengthened its energy ties with the EU since 2022, ramping up gas deliveries and articulating ambitions to export renewable energy and green hydrogen to Europe in the future. However, the EU’s shrinking gas demand and Azerbaijan’s lack of a genuine decarbonization strategy cast uncertainty on the long-term prospects of this partnership.

The ruling Georgian Dream party won Georgia’s 2024 parliamentary elections by engaging in election manipulation, adopting the classical illiberal-authoritarian playbook. The EU must now insist on an independent investigation.

Externalisation is increasingly seen as a lever for solving the EU’s migration issues, yet poses serious legal, ethical and practical problems. 

The lithium deal brings a new quality to Serbia’s foreign policy zigzagging. At one stroke, Serbia became a strategic partner and the guarantor for the future of the European Green Deal.