Croatian President Zoran Milanović has slammed France for selling Zagreb secondhand fighter jets while providing its rival Serbia with a brand-new fleet. “We look like fools,” he raged last week, “because the French sell new Rafales to the Serbs and used ones to us.” Zagreb finalized a government-to-government deal with Paris in 2021 to modernize its air force by purchasing a dozen Rafale fighters valued at €999 million. The final aircraft, which were procured from France’s own stocks, were delivered last April, replacing Croatia’s outdated Soviet-era MiG-21 fleet. In August 2024, Serbia signed a deal to buy 12 Rafale jets from French manufacturer Dassault Aviation fresh from the factory. That transaction has enraged the Croatian president. Croatia fought Serbia in the 1990s in the bloody wars that followed Yugoslavia’s disintegration. While relations between the two countries have improved dramatically since then, non-NATO Serbia’s close ties with Moscow are a worry to Zagreb, which joined the Atlantic alliance in 2009 and the EU in 2013. Serbia’s own EU candidacy has largely stalled, with Belgrade ditching a Western Balkans summit in Brussels last month. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos called on Serbia in November to “urgently reverse the backsliding on freedom of expression.” French Europe Deputy Minister Benjamin Haddad, who was in Zagreb on Monday to discuss defense cooperation, defended the Serbia contract, saying Croatia should be pleased Belgrade was “gradually freeing itself from dependence on Russia and strengthening its ties with Western countries.” But Milanović hit back that the deal was “implemented behind Croatia’s back and to the detriment of Croatia’s national interests,” and showed “that every country takes care of its own interests, including profits, first and foremost.” The left-wing president added that the Croatian government, led by center-right Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, had erred by not confirming “whether France would sell the same or even more advanced aircraft models to one of our neighboring countries outside NATO.” DOMESTIC SQUABBLES Croatian officials are split over whether the president was right to react the way he did. One Croatian diplomat told POLITICO that Milanović had a point and that France was wrong to sell the newer jets to Serbia after fobbing off Croatia with an older model. But a second Croatian official said the deal was a good one for Zagreb and noted that the Croatian government had signed a letter of intent in December with Paris to upgrade its Rafale jets to the latest F4 standard. “From France’s point of view, the signing of the letter of intent on December 8 in France by the minister [Catherine Vautrin] and her Croatian counterpart aims to support the partner in modernizing its Rafale fleet to the highest standard currently in service in France,” an official from the French armed forces ministry echoed. “The defense relationship with Croatia is dynamic and not set in stone in 2021.” Croatia’s defense ministry said Milanović’s remarks “show elementary ignorance of how the international arms trade works.” “Great powers — the United States of America, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, China — have been selling the same or similar weapons to countries that are in tense and even openly antagonistic relations for decades,” the ministry added. “The USA is simultaneously arming Israel and Egypt, Russia [is arming] India and Pakistan, while the West is simultaneously arming Greece and Turkey. This is the rule, not the exception.” In Croatia, the president is also the commander-in-chief of the military but shares jurisdiction over defense policy with the government, which is responsible for the budget and the day-to-day management of the armed forces. Milanović and Plenković are often at odds, a third Croatian official said, arguing the president was using the issue to hammer his political rival. DIRT-CHEAP FIGHTER JETS France has looked to strengthen defense ties with Croatia, which spends over 2 percent of its GDP on defense and is transitioning its Soviet-era military stocks to Western arms. Some of those purchases are coming from France. Plenković was in Paris in December to sign a separate deal with KNDS France for 18 Caesar self-propelled howitzers and 15 Serval armored vehicles, with the equipment to be purchased with the EU’s loans-for-weapons SAFE money.  In the original fighter jet deal, Croatia bought airplanes that were being used by the French air force, meaning they were cheaper than new stock and were available quickly. At the time the decision was criticized in Paris by parliamentarians arguing France was weakening its own air force to seal export contracts. Serbia, meanwhile, reportedly paid €2.7 billion for the same number of jets, which are expected to be delivered as of 2028. China and Russia provide the vast majority of Belgrade’s weapons, with France a distant third.

Kosovo’s caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti said he intends to swiftly form a new government after preliminary results showed his party on track to comfortably win Sunday’s early parliamentary election. The ruling left-wing Self-Determination Movement won about 49 percent of the votes in an election that was seen as vital to halting a year-long political crisis and kick-starting the country’s stalled hopes of joining the European Union. The center-right opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) trailed far behind on 21 percent, while the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) secured 14 percent of the vote, authorities said after nearly all the ballots were counted. Turnout was around 44 percent. Kurti, speaking at a press conference after the preliminary results were announced, claimed the result was “the biggest victory in the history of the country” and said he would look to form a new government as soon as the results were certified and parliament constituted.  “We don’t have time to lose and must move forward together as quickly as possible,” Kurti said. His supporters cheered and chanted outside the party’s headquarters in the capital Pristina.  Kurti’s party won the most votes in a parliamentary election in February but fell short of securing an absolute majority. After months of talks failed to produce a coalition government, President Vjosa Osmani called a snap election in November — the country’s seventh parliamentary ballot since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

After nearly a year of political paralysis, Kosovo returns to the polls on Sunday in a vote that could determine if the country makes progress on its stalled path toward the European Union. A February election saw a clear winner, caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s ruling Self-Determination party, which picked up 42 percent of the vote. However, it failed to secure an absolute majority and then was unable to form a coalition with another party. Kurti’s party has pushed Kosovo into deeper isolation, as its left-wing populist approach and efforts to assert Kosovo’s sovereignty in the Serb-majority north have strained ties with both the U.S. and the EU, leading to punitive measures. A spokesperson for Kurti declined to comment for this article. None of the major opposition parties wanted to work with Self-Determination, nor did they approve of Kurti’s multiple attempts to nominate a speaker of parliament. Kurti even offered to give up his position as prime minister to assuage the opposition, but to no avail. That meant President Vjosa Osmani was forced to trigger a snap election in November, making it Kosovo’s seventh parliamentary ballot since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Ahead of Sunday’s vote, opposition parties such as the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), and Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) show no signs of changing their stance on Kurti. “LDK, PDK, and AAK see Kurti as a populist who has hampered relations with the West and sabotaged NATO membership and the EU integration process,” Haki Abazi, a parliamentary candidate for AAK, told POLITICO. Abazi was deputy prime minister under Kurti during his first term in 2019, but was later expelled from the party due to disagreements over political direction. “Kurti is seen as toxic and fragmenting,” said Abazi, adding that’s why none of the three parties will form a coalition with the Self-Determination leader. There is a possibility that all three opposition parties could form a coalition to prevent another political deadlock, with Abazi calling such a scenario “very likely.” However, MP Blerta Deliu-Kodra from PDK told POLITICO that “it remains to be seen what the numbers will be” — although she expects a government to be formed without Kurti as prime minister. PDK candidate Hajdar Beqa told POLITICO that “Kurti’s government has seriously harmed Kosovo’s European integration process,” stressing the need for a new government to “return the country on a secure path toward the EU.” However, acting deputy foreign minister and Self-Determination candidate Liza Gashi told POLITICO that during Kurti’s mandate, the ruling party “strengthened democratic institutions, improved key economic indicators, expanded social protection, and governed with integrity and stability. [Self-Determination] enters these elections with a strong governing record and broad public support.” Meanwhile, Kosovo’s application for EU membership remains “in the drawers of the European Union,” Osmani said, speaking during an EU-Western Balkans Summit last week. The country applied in 2022, but little progress has been made since. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced at the summit that the EU will lift 2023 sanctions against Kosovo over tensions in the Serb-majority north and unblock over €400 million in financial aid. But if the country fails to form a government again, Kosovo risks losing access to the bloc’s €6 billion Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, as it needs to deliver reforms to unlock the funding. “Kosovo already faces an uphill battle because of five non-recognizer [EU] states, and the country cannot afford another year lost to the politicians’ inability to do what they were elected for — provide solutions, not create problems,” said Besar Gërgi, an expert in European integration at the Group for Legal and Political Studies, a Kosovo think tank. Cyprus, Slovakia, Spain, Greece and Romania do not recognize Kosovo. When asked by POLITICO what to expect from Sunday’s election, Osmani expressed confidence that it would meet “the best democratic standards,” deliver swift results and allow for the rapid formation of government institutions. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said he hopes “for a big and significant victory” for Kosovo’s largest ethnic Serb party, Serb List, expecting that it will secure seats to “represent the interests of Serbs, not Albin Kurti.” Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo and refers to the state as ‘Kosovo and Metohija,’ its former name as a Serbian province. The EU has attempted to remediate relations between Kosovo and Serbia through the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue; however, despite years of talks, the intervention has produced few concrete results. Kosovo and Serbia signed a normalization agreement in 2023, which involves de facto mutual recognition of each other’s sovereignty. “We need to normalise relations with Serbia,” said Kurti in a recent interview with AFP. “But normalising relations with a neighboring authoritarian regime that doesn’t recognize you, that also doesn’t admit to the crimes committed during the war, is quite difficult,” he added. Kurti wants Serbia to “hand over Milan Radoičić,” a former Serb List politician who plotted a terrorist attack on northern Kosovo in 2023 that resulted in the death of a Kosovo policeman. Radoičić is wanted in Kosovo but is currently in Serbia.

Serbia will be absent when EU leaders meet their Western Balkan counterparts on Wednesday evening to discuss enlargement after President Aleksandar Vučić said late Tuesday that his country would not attend. “For the first time in the last 13 or 14 years, neither I nor anyone else will go to that intergovernmental conference. No one will represent the Republic of Serbia, so the Western Balkans will be without the Republic of Serbia,” Vučić told Serbian media. The Serbian president called it a personal decision, arguing that “by doing this, I believe I am protecting the Republic of Serbia and its interests, because we need to show what we have achieved.” Serbia has made little progress in its bid to join the EU, despite being granted candidate status in 2012. No major accession milestones have been reached since 2021. Vučić’s decision follows a dinner meeting in Brussels on Dec. 10 with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, where Vučić said he proposed that all six Western Balkan countries join the EU simultaneously rather than through the standard step-by-step accession process. Serbia has long maintained close ties with Russia, rooted in historical, cultural and religious connections as well as close economic cooperation; Serbia relies on Moscow for gas supplies. Since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Serbia has faced growing pressure to distance itself from Moscow but has resisted imposing sanctions, instead seeking to balance its ties with Russia and the European Union. Serbian Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starović issued a statement backing Vučić’s decision, accusing the EU of a “short-sighted lack of willingness” to recognize Serbia’s reforms and make progress in the accession process — a stance he said sends a negative message to Serbian citizens. “This message only fuels anti-European narratives and discourages those who are driving reform processes within society,” Starović said. Starović went on to say that Serbia’s absence defends ” the dignity of our people, but also the integrity of the accession process, as well as the credibility of the European idea in Serbia.” Opposition politicians in Serbia criticized the decision, calling it “an attempt at emotional blackmail, because Vučić is dissatisfied that Albania and Montenegro have made progress and are likely to become the next EU member states,” said Aleksandar Radovanović, member of the Free Citizens Movement. Pavle Grbović, a member of Serbia’s parliament also from Free Citizens Movement, said it was “a symptom of profound political cowardice and an attempt to evade uncomfortable questions and messages.” POLITICO contacted the European Council for comment but did not receive a reply.

Ukraine and the European Union have agreed on a series of reforms Kyiv must undertake to bolster the rule of law and keep its bid to join the 27-member bloc on track, officials said. Speaking in Ukraine’s Lviv on Thursday, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said the plan included 10 “reform priorities,” all of which concerned the need to bolster judicial institutions. The pact comes weeks after the largest corruption scandal to hit Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, affecting close associates of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “The Commission … sees this new phase in the negotiations as an opportunity to pick up speed and intensity” in Kyiv’s bid to join the EU, Kos said. The 10 points agreed “all focus on strengthening rule of law, fighting corruption and building strong, accountable democratic institutions in Ukraine.” In a statement co-signed by Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Kos hailed the completion of a “bilateral screening process.” The commissioner also noted that technical work to open six so-called negotiating clusters had been completed even as Hungary continues to block the formal opening of accession talks with Kyiv, a step that requires the approval of all 27 EU member states. Kyiv is determined to make rapid progress in its bid to join the EU, and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has encouraged the mission, saying Ukraine’s place is inside the bloc. However, the recent corruption scandal, which saw Zelenskyy fire one of his closest aides, has dealt a setback to the process. Thursday’s reform plan aims to address the stumble. “If we do this cluster by cluster and Ukraine does its part, we can make sure that Ukraine is as ready as possible to become a member once the Hungary veto is off the table,” Swedish Europe Minister Jessica Rosencrantz told POLITICO, referring to the possibility that Hungary’s Moscow-friendly PM Viktor Orbán might be defeated in scheduled April 2026 parliamentary elections. The accession talks are at the heart of peace negotiations being led by U.S. President Donald Trump. With Washington refusing to let Kyiv into NATO, Ukraine’s bid to join the EU looms large as a major incentive for the country to keep fighting and pursuing internal reforms. “Of course in one sense an EU membership is also one kind of security guarantee,” added Sweden’s Rosencrantz, who was on the ground in Lviv. “We know also that Ukrainian people have been striving for EU membership for many years.” Among other reforms, the plan unveiled Thursday includes making “comprehensive amendments” to Ukraine’s criminal code; reinforcing its NABU anti-corruption agency; adopting a law to standardize the appointment of prosecutors; reforming the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI); appointing internationally-vetted judges to the Constitutional Court and High Council of Justice; and developing internal control systems against high-level corruption, among other points.

BRUSSELS ― Belgian police raided the EU’s foreign service and the College of Europe on Tuesday in a bombshell corruption probe — and detained two of the EU’s most powerful officials. Federica Mogherini, who once served as the EU’s top diplomat, and Stefano Sannino, a director-general in the European Commission, were questioned over allegations of fraud in the establishment of a training academy for diplomats. Mogherini was born in Rome, the daughter of a film set designer. She was elected to the Italian parliament in 2008 as an MP with the center-left Democratic Party and became Italy’s foreign minister in 2014, an appointment that, at the time, took many by surprise. The 52-year-old’s tenure was short-lived, as she was made the EU’s high representative — the foreign policy chief — the same year, a position she held until 2019. Her time in the job is perhaps most notable for her work on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. At the end of her five-year term, she became the rector of the Bruges-based College of Europe, a position she’s been in ever since. But her appointment was mired in claims of cronyism, as professors and EU officials argued that she was not qualified for the post, did not meet the criteria and applied after the deadline. She has also served as the director of the EU Diplomatic Academy, a program for junior diplomats across EU countries that is run by the College of Europe, since August 2022. It’s the academy that is at the center of the probe. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said it has “strong suspicions” that rules around “fair competition” were breached when the EEAS awarded the tender to set up the academy. Sannino, a career diplomat from Naples with a packed CV including various roles in Rome and Brussels, has served as director-general of DG Enlargement, permanent representative of Italy to the EU, Italian ambassador to Spain and Andorra and secretary-general of the European External Action Service (EEAS). He has championed LGBTQ+ rights and is married to Catalan political adviser Santiago Mondragón. He started his current role as director-general of DG MENA, the EU’s department for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf, in February. He has lectured at the College of Europe and at the diplomatic academy. None of the people questioned has been charged. An investigative judge has 48 hours to decide on further action.

Serbian lawmakers on Friday approved a luxury Trump-branded high-rise in Belgrade on the site of an architectural landmark.  The contentious project, proposed by Jared Kushner — son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump — had been on hold after several Serbian officials linked to it were charged with fraud.  Critics also objected to the plan to build the half-billion-dollar complex, which includes a hotel and apartments, on the grounds of the former Yugoslav army headquarters. The site was left in ruins after NATO’s 1999 bombing to end the Kosovo war, and has long been regarded as an unofficial memorial, as well as a landmark of 20th-century Yugoslav architecture.   Despite the controversy, Serbia’s parliament pushed the project through, with President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party passing a special law to strip the site of its cultural protections. Lawmakers took the unusual step of invoking a constitutional provision to declare the development a project of national importance, thereby allowing it to proceed.   Opposition lawmakers lashed out at the government over its decision, with center-left MP Marinika Tepić claiming Belgrade was sacrificing the country’s history simply “to please Donald Trump.”  “In a place where bombs once fell, you now plan to pour champagne,” she said.  But Vučić has argued the project is necessary to improve ties with Washington, accusing its critics of wanting to get in the way of “better relations with the Trump administration.”  Kushner, who has no official role in the White House but has frequently advised his father-in-law, has pursued a flurry of major real-estate development deals around the world in recent years, including a luxury resort in Albania. Affinity Partners, a private investment firm founded by Kushner, was gifted a 99-year lease by Serbia’s government in 2022 to build the Trump-branded development in Belgrade.  Anti-corruption activists have taken to the streets across Serbia over the past year, protesting what they describe as the government’s impunity and lack of accountability. This week, the European Commission highlighted Belgrade’s slow pace of reforms on corruption and rule-of-law standards in its annual enlargement progress report. 

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Europe faces a growing dilemma: how to protect children online without breaking digital privacy for everyone.  A new report from the Internet Watch Foundation found that 62 percent of all child sexual abuse material discovered online last year was hosted on EU servers. It’s a shocking statistic that has left Brussels locked in a heated debate over how far new regulations should go — and whether scanning encrypted messages could be justified, even at the cost of privacy and the risk of mass surveillance.  Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO’s Sam Clark, Eliza Gkritsi and Océane Herrero to unpack Europe’s child safety regulations — and the balance between protecting kids, protecting privacy and policing platforms. The conversation also touches on the latest controversy out of France, involving Shein — the fast-fashion giant caught selling childlike sex dolls online.   Then, from Europe’s digital dilemmas to Albania’s digital experiment: Gordon Repinski, host of POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook podcast, sits down with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who has appointed the world’s first artificial intelligence minister — a virtual woman named Diella. Rama explains why he believes Diella could help fight corruption, cut bureaucracy and speed up Albania’s path toward EU membership. 

BRUSSELS — Ukraine must avoid backsliding on anti-corruption efforts to remain in the fast lane for EU membership, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos said Tuesday as she prepared to unveil a report praising pro-EU reforms in Moldova, Albania and Montenegro. While lauding Kyiv’s efforts to conduct reforms during wartime, Kos pointed to concerns about the strength of anti-corruption reforms as a potential obstacle following a furor in the summer over a law that would have kneecapped the independence of anti-corruption watchdogs. “Amid the challenges caused by Russia’s war of aggression, Ukraine has demonstrated its commitment to its EU path,” Kos told European lawmakers ahead of unveiling the EU’s latest progress reports on candidate countries. “It will be essential to sustain this momentum and prevent any risk of backsliding, in particular on anti-corruption.” Facing an international outcry, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reversed course on his controversial decision to assert political control over the anti-corruption agencies and restored the independence of two corruption-fighting bodies in July. But the damage to Ukraine’s image as an A+ candidate for EU membership had already been done in the eyes of the European Commission, as well as national capitals, according to EU officials and diplomats who spoke to POLITICO ahead of the report’s unveiling later on Tuesday afternoon. The uproar led Kos to give slightly more emphatic praise for Moldova’s reform efforts in the progress report even though Chișinău’s accession bid is politically linked to that of Kyiv, and the two countries have so far advanced in lockstep. “Moldova has progressed on its accession path with accelerated speed and significantly deepened its cooperation with the EU despite the continuous hybrid threats and attempts to destabilize the country,” Kos said. Of all the countries applying to join the EU, Brussels gave the highest praise to Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova, noting that these countries aimed to finalize their accession negotiations by the end of 2026, the end of 2027, and in 2028 for the latter two, respectively. “The coming year will be a moment of truth for all candidate countries, but especially those that presented ambitious plans to complete negotiations,” Kos added. This year’s accession report card will land amid heightened concern in Brussels and European capitals that Moscow is trying to pull EU candidates out of Brussels’ orbit and back into Russia’s sphere of influence. A recent election campaign in Moldova, in which pro-EU forces prevailed, was marred by “massive Russian interference,” according to President Maia Sandu, while Russia has openly courted Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić, inviting him to Moscow for a military parade last May. The report card is expected to be particularly harsh on Serbia, the largest EU candidate country in the Western Balkans, which has received visits from both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President António Costa in the past few months. “In Serbia, the authorities continue to declare EU membership as their strategic goal, but the actual pace of implementation of reforms has slowed down significantly,” Kos told the lawmakers.  But the harshest words were reserved for Georgia, where a Moscow-friendly ruling party has been cracking down on pro-democracy, pro-EU protests. “In Georgia, the situation has sharply deteriorated, with serious democratic backsliding,” Kos said. “The Commission considers Georgia a candidate country in name only.”

Alexandru Munteanu was sworn in as Moldova’s prime minister on Saturday during a ceremony attended by President Maia Sandu and the speaker of parliament, Igor Grosu. Munteanu, a 61-year-old economist who has worked at the World Bank and Moldova’s National Bank, is taking political office for the first time to help lead his country’s push for EU membership. Moldova’s parliament appointed Munteanu as prime minister on Friday, after September’s elections gave Sandu’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) a decisive victory over its pro-Russian rivals. “We have a unique opportunity to become the government that will bring Moldova into the European Union,” Munteanu said on Friday before the vote of confidence. The newly elected prime minister won the backing of 55 of the 101 MPs. Sandu’s PAS cruised to victory in September, securing more than 50 percent of the votes over the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP), which won 24.2 percent of the vote. The election was marred by what officials described as an “unprecedented” Russian hybrid interference campaign aimed at undermining Moldova’s pro-European drive through disinformation, vote-buying, and attempts to incite unrest, according to national security officials. “After years of having to manage multiple crises and challenges, starting today, we need a government that focuses more on development and completes Moldova’s transformation into a modern European state,” said Sandu in a statement after Munteanu’s swearing-in. “Before you stands a country that needs trust and results. I wish you strength, wisdom in your decisions, and unity in your actions. May it be an auspicious beginning, and may you have success in all you do for the good of the Republic of Moldova and its people,” said Sandu, addressing the new government’s Cabinet.