Central & Eastern Europe Archive

Lithuania’s prime minister-designate, Ingrida Simonyte, announced her Cabinet lineup this week, selecting women for about half of the ministerial posts. Simonyte led the country’s main center-right opposition party, the Homeland Union—Lithuanian Christian Democrats, to victory in general elections late last month, taking 50 of the 141 seats in the Seimas, the country’s legislature. She will form a coalition government with two other right-leaning parties, the Liberal Movement and the Freedom Party, both of which are also led by women. According to Gediminas Vitkus, a professor of international relations at Vilnius University in Lithuania, one factor in the Homeland Union’s victory […]

The recent U.S.-brokered agreements between Serbia and Kosovo to normalize their economic ties have been portrayed by all three governments as a momentous diplomatic achievement. “By focusing on job creation and economic growth, the two countries were able to reach a major breakthrough,” President Donald Trump said at a White House signing ceremony in September, standing alongside Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti. Both leaders committed to moving forward on direct transportation links and other infrastructure projects, with the hope of boosting economic development, particularly in Kosovo, one of the poorest countries in Europe. The announcement […]