Balkanalysis.com

By Oxford Business Group* A pay raise for teachers has become a key policy issue in the parliamentary election campaign, raising concerns about state spending at a time when many say Romania should be taking steps to adopt fiscally responsible measures to protect its economy from the global financial crisis. The Chamber of Deputies had [...]

By Oxford Business Group* Romania‘s dominant beer brewers continue to benefit from the country’s increasing purchasing power, but as growth in consumption of beer plateaus and production costs rise, market players are revising their tactics to secure their market shares in the long run. Market leader Heineken Romania announced their consolidated results for the first [...]

By Oxford Business Group* With new EU member states under pressure to comply with a revised common energy policy, joint-efforts between international and local banks have been made to kick-start energy efficient practices in Romania. Four mayor players in Romania’s banking sector have recently received a total of 45m euros from the European Bank of [...]

By Oxford Business Group* During the upcoming spring holiday, thousands of Romanians will head south for the beaches of Bulgaria, eschewing their own Black Sea resorts and seeking superior services. The exodus reveals the ongoing weaknesses of Romania’s own tourism industry, which has tremendous potential for growth but remains hobbled by bottlenecks, particularly labour issues [...]

Balkanalysis.com would like to announce that nine months’ worth of archived articles, many previously unavailable on the website, have now been uploaded to our page at the Central and Eastern European Online Library (CEEOL.com). The articles in question number more than 50, and cover the months March-December 2006. They will be of interest to researchers [...]

The year 2007 was an eventful one in the Balkans, though several major trends remained underreported or were simply ignored. The Western media utilized most of its limited capacity to the political dimensions of the future status of Kosovo, choosing to tell and retell a tired story of good vs. bad (i.e., the West vs. [...]

After an EC-commissioned audit, Romania was warned on 13 November “to tighten controls in its farm payment systems or face a severe cut in subsidies next year from the European Union,” the Financial Times reported yesterday. The vast, largely agricultural country in the northeastern Balkans is hoping to receive 443m euros in EU payments to [...]

Balkanalysis.com would like to inform its readers that the site will be on summer recess through September. Look for new articles and photos to be posted then. Until we’sre back, readers may like to check out two new books from Balkanalysis.com director Christopher Deliso, and to peruse the archive- as well as new hand-picked essential [...]

By Lara Scarpitta* It is old news that geography matters in foreign policy. A dormant EC/EU had to learn this vital lesson in 1989, when communism crumbled behind its safe walls. Faced with the sudden prospect of bordering poor, unpredictable and unstable neighbours, it responded by anchoring the former soviet satellites of Central Europe with [...]

We at Balkanalysis.com are proud to welcome our readers to the new and improved version of the website. With a different look, improved functionality, enhanced features and more, we are sure that you will enjoy the site more than ever. Here’s what’s different: -Excellent search capabilities; articles are also cross-posted in up to 12 different [...]