—🇪🇺/🇷🇸/🇷🇺 WATCH: Poland’s former Ambassador to the Council of Europe, Urszula Gacek, warned that Serbia’s entry into the European Union would pose a significantly greater challenge than Hungary’s Viktor Orbán.

➡️ Speaking on Serbia's geopolitical alignment, Gacek stressed that Belgrade's membership would go beyond mere lobbying for Moscow, effectively giving Russia a direct seat at the EU decision-making table.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇲🇪/🇪🇺 NEW: The government of Montenegro and a faction of the parliamentary opposition have officially signed a new agreement brokered by European Union mediators, state media reported.

➡️ The accord outlines critical legislative amendments to the country's laws on internal affairs and the National Security Agency.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇷🇴 NEW: A Romanian judge has issued a warning rather than a harsher criminal penalty to the former bodyguard of politician Călin Georgescu, who had been accused of installing a cross bearing an Iron Guard symbol.

➡️ The court ruled that the legionary cross is not directly racist, a position supported during the trial by an ethnology expert who testified that the artifact constitutes a traditional Christian symbol.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇷🇴/🇬🇧 NEW: A new report highlights a major economic contribution from the Romanian community in the UK, revealing they hold the highest employment rate among all migrant groups.

➡️ 349,700 Romanians are currently employed in the UK, representing an 80.4% employment rate.

➡️ Romanian citizens paid £2.4 billion in taxes and social contributions between 2019 and 2020.

➡️ Romanians make up 19% of London’s construction workforce, while 6,575 are employed in the NHS, a figure that has doubled in recent years.

➡️ Romanian entrepreneurs are also becoming increasingly active in high-tech startups, including robotics, AI, fintech, cybersecurity, energy, and research.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—❗️🇺🇸🤝🇹🇷 NEW: Trump announces the U.S. will lift all sanctions on Turkey. —Polymarket

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇧🇬 NEW: Bulgaria's Minister of Internal Affairs revealed during a parliamentary hearing that the ministry is investigating the finances of sanctioned politician Delyan Peevski, uncovering more than 227 private flights to Dubai, Greece, and Turkey between 2016 and 2026.

➡️ The flights, which cost an estimated €1.8 million, also included a roster of over 80 travel companions.

➡️ Notably among them was Desislava Atanasova from the GERB party, who logged a joint flight with Peevski just days before assuming her current role as an acting Judge on the Constitutional Court.

➡️ The revelation has sparked intense scrutiny in Sofia over why a high-profile politician sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act was sharing luxury travel routes with a future constitutional arbiter.

ℹ️ Information reported by our source in Bulgaria.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English

—🇫🇷/🇷🇴 NEW: The French Embassy has decorated 16 Romanian police officers following the successful capture of notorious Algerian drug lord Mohamed Amra in Bucharest.

➡️ Amra, who had been hiding in the Romanian capital after a violent and high-profile escape from a prison transport in France, was apprehended during a coordinated security operation.

✅ @balkanspectator — the leading Balkan news channel in English