The Balkan Chronicle

The Balkans are characterised by fragmented territories and heterogeneous areas – cities that look towards Europe contrast with a forgotten rural countryside, often the site of stories about marginalisation, migration, communities left to their own devices and lost opportunities.

Rural is still a synonym of backwardness, poverty, and exclusive dependence on the agricultural sector; far from the romantic vision rural areas enjoy in many European countries. Yet there are some dissident voices that tell of success stories and some initiatives that enable a glimpse towards the future to those long forgotten areas, too far from the political centres that count.

Connecting Greek islands on the Aegean Sea to Turkish electricity grids may help overcoming recent political problems between the two countries, Greek Energy Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou tells the media.

The Greek Energy Ministry's new plan to tap into Turkish grids to meet Greek islands' electricity needs could boost flagging Ankara-Athens relations that have been strained by offshore Greek Cypriot gas exploration, Greece's energy minister has said.

International and local reports indicate that economic stagnation is one of Kosovo's most serious challenges. The financial crisis in Europe has made the situation worse. Lawlessness in north Kosovo, inhabited mainly by Kosovar Serbs, is at the same putting at risk its territorial integrity.

In order to promote growth, reduce unemployment and foster stability, the government should look to best practice in Germany and Scandinavia on how to use its human and natural resources.

These countries and regions are at a much more advanced stage, but they can help Prishtina understand how to capitalise on its young labour force and how to use its extensive road, rail and air infrastructure, as well as its access to sea ports in Durres, Thessaloniki and Bari in nearby countries.

The mainstream media as of late has been focusing its total attention on the sovereign debt crisis in Europe and seemingly has forgotten that we have a much larger debt crisis in the U.S. that hasn't gone away and is only getting worse. Many global economists have been saying in recent weeks that if the European Central Bank (ECB) only went the way of the Federal Reserve, eurozone nations wouldn't be in the desperate situation they are in today. NIA believes that the ECB has already been acting just like the Fed, just not to the same extent.

Mario Draghi just took over as the new President of the ECB and as his first act in office, Draghi lowered the ECB's benchmark interest rate by 0.25% to 1.25%. The ECB's interest rate of 1.25%, while not quite as low as the Fed Funds Rate of 0% to 0.25%, is still very inflationary. The ECB's primary stated objective has always been maintaining price stability and containing inflation. However, with all of the rioting and civil unrest that took place in Greece in response to major austerity cuts, public officials in countries like Spain have been putting pressure on the ECB to abandon their objective to maintain price stability and instead focus on helping fuel growth.

At the beginning of this month, the G20 met in France to try to find a way to solve the European sovereign debt crisis.  It ended with world leaders in disarray over a way to come up with a solution.  At first blush, it appears that nothing of any importance came of the meeting of the 20 leading economies of the world, but that is not the case.  It was widely reported the G20 came up with the idea that Germany might put up its gold reserves to back a bailout fund called the European Financial Stability Facility or EFSF.  Of course, Germany, with its more than 3,400 tonnes of gold (number 2 in the world), quickly shot that idea down.  End of story?  Quite the contrary–the gold story is just beginning to get interesting.

Balkan countries are seeking over euro500 million ($688 million) to resolve the problems of tens of thousands of refugees still remaining from the wars of the 1990s, officials said on Monday.

Officials from Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro announced plans for a donors' conference to be held next year and raise the money needed to implement a five-year plan designed to close down all migrant centers and provide housing for some 74,000 people.

Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation government signed a preliminary deal on Thursday with Royal Dutch Shell's Shell Exploration Company to survey potential natural gas and oil fields.

The federation government has revived exploration plans made before Bosnia's 1992-95 war, when research revealed the potential for oil in the north and south.

In the wake of the Ottoman's advance across the Balkans, the conquerors put Serbian and Bosnian mines at the service of the empire. Centuries later, the Balkans' mineral wealth has once again become a sought-after prize for Turkey, whose domestic mining sector is quickly expanding, but not at a rate able to meet the demand of its booming economy.

After the collapse of Yugoslavia, the region's mines lay largely underexploited, if not abandoned, for years sometimes leading to severe environmental impacts. But the continuing stabilisation and development of the region is now paving the way for a rebirth of the local mining industry.

Construction of Serbia's section of the South Stream gas pipeline may begin by the end of the year, said the head of Srbijagas,the Balkan country's state-owned gas company.

The 400-kilometer (250-mile) stretch, estimated to cost 1.38 billion euros ($1.86 billion) with transit capacity of 34 billion square meters of natural gas a year, may also enable Serbia to build two to four gas-fired power plants. Srbijagas will seek government approval and partners for developing the plants, which would provide power and steam for communal heating after the South Stream's expected completion in 2015.

The development policy of the Federal Republic of Germany is formulated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and carried out by implementing organisations, such as KfW development bank and the German Technical Cooperation Agency GTZ.

BMZ develops the guidelines and the fundamental concepts of German bilateral development cooperation with some 60 partner countries worldwide. A number of other countries receives support under regional programmes or programmes dealing with specific sectors.

EU and IMF inspectors will return to Greece on Thursday to decide whether Athens has done enough to secure a new batch of aid vital to avoid bankruptcy, while Germany suggested a new bailout may have to be renegotiated.

Facing a wave of strikes and protests, Greece's Socialist government is accelerating budget measures to meet the terms of an International Monetary Fund and European Union rescue deal so it can receive a new loan next month.

Sky Petroleum, Inc. (OTCBB:SKPI.ob - News), an oil and gas company, announces that will be participating in the First US-Albania Investment Forum being held on September 19th, 2011 in New York, NY.

The US-Albania Investment Forum features a delegation led by HE Sali Berisha, Prime Minister, Government of Albania, and will also include Hon Edmund Haxhinasto, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nasip Naco, Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy and Hon Sokol Olldashi, Minister of Public Works and Transportation. The Albanian Honorary Consul, HE Dritan Mishto will open the forum and will then describe the current investment climate in Albania and the country's efforts to attract foreign direct investment. The introduction will be followed by various breakout sessions as well as numerous networking opportunities.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that his government increased the efficiency and productivity of Turkey's economy by making comprehensive reforms, carrying out new arrangements in banking sector and combatting against poverty and corruption in the last nine years.

"We recovered from the global crisis faster than many countries since we learnt our lessons from the economic crisis in 2001. The measures we took under the light of our experience from the crisis in 2001, our strict financial discipline and our political stability helped us to recover from the global financial crisis," he said at Turkey-Egypt Business Forum in Cairo.

The first serious working week after the summer holidays has already produced a wealth of stories here in the western Balkans. Some are more serious than others, unless of course you live here, when they are all deadly serious. Here is a roundup of some of them.

Outside the old Yugoslav Federal Parliament building in the Serbian capital they are rolling up the red carpet which had been unrolled to welcome delegates to the 50th birthday bash of the Non-Aligned Movement, which I have written about here. Serbia, which hosted the gathering, is not a member, but never mind that. It finds it useful to lobby over the Kosovo issue and for business.

«Here you can go a week without spending a single euro over here," says a man who moved back to Crete two years ago to live in the village of his birth. "You get fresh food from your farm and if you need something extra, like olive oil for example, you can get it from a fellow farmer. You only need money to pay for your gas and bills," he says.

He is not alone. For the first time in years, Amari Valley in the island's Rethymno district has turned green again as fields have been cleared and put back to use as farms.

The meltdown of the global financial system has raised profound questions of its fundamental structural reform. The downward spiral in the US and Western Europe is described by financial experts as deleveraging : the forced reduction of accumulated debt by households and financial institutions. As more assets get dumped into the market, prices are driven down further, which in turn necessitates more deleveraging. This vicious cycle has gained such momentum that even the massive bailout packages may not be sufficient to stop it. The bursting of the debt-fuelled property bubble in the US, together with the crippling losses suffered by banks, has set in motion a chain-reaction that, in a worst-case scenario, (according to Prof Niall Ferguson of Harvard) could lead to a 21st century version of the Great Depression (1).

Close to midnight on the hot summer day of June 8, the inhabitants of the town of Drenas, in Kosovo, were jolted out of their sleep by a huge explosion. "We thought NATO was bombing again, or that maybe it was an earthquake," a local journalist, Bekim Dobra, recalls. After the initial panic subsided, the residents discovered that no natural disaster had befallen the youngest and poorest country in Europe, nor was a new war suddenly engulfing the Balkans: The explosion had occurred in the nickel mine located only a kilometer from the town. According to the local media, one of the furnaces used to produce metal in the smelting plant nearby blew up, injuring a number of workers and damaging dozens of homes.

The local population knows that the entire complex, known as Ferronikeli - for the iron-nickel alloy it manufactures - is owned by foreign entities: by Cunico, a company owned by the Benny Steinmetz Group (BSG ) Resources, Ltd. firm, and International Mineral Resources (IMR ), which is owned by Alexander Mashkevich, a Kazakh Jew who also holds Israeli citizenship.

Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology – the belief in free and unfettered markets – brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its hey-day, from the early 1980's until 2007, American-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest in the richest country of the world. Indeed, over the course of this ideology's 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate year after year.

Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable. With so much of US national income going to so few, growth could continue only through consumption financed by a mounting pile of debt.

I was among those who hoped that, somehow, the financial crisis would teach Americans (and others) a lesson about the need for greater equality, stronger regulation, and a better balance between the market and government. Alas, that has not been the case. On the contrary, a resurgence of right-wing economics, driven, as always, by ideology and special interests, once again threatens the global economy – or at least the economies of Europe and America, where these ideas continue to flourish.

The commission has approved Spain's request to restrict its labour market to Romanian workers until 31 December 2012 due to "serious disturbances" in its labour market.

In announcing the move on Thursday, the commission said Spain has been hit "very hard" by the economic crisis.

Eighty years ago, a banking collapse devastated Europe, triggering war. Today, faith in the free markets is faltering again

Exactly 80 years ago, international capitalism stood on the verge of meltdown.

The collapse of the banking system in the summer of 1931 sent shockwaves through Europe, bringing governments to their knees and thousands out onto the streets.

In the United States, an increasingly careworn president and his congressional critics fought a bitter battle over government spending and tax rises.