Published by the Institute for Strategic Solutions (ISR)
- Make room
28 by 28Montenegro may become the EU's 28th member by 2028. You have to admit, going off the title alone, it is catchy, and we're just getting started.
- Freight expectationsSerbia is spending €1.3 billion on its Expo. Someone has to move it all in
Intereuropa will handle every vehicle, consignment and piece of equipment going into Expo 2027 in Belgrade, and coming out again.
- The in-crowdWho gets to be 'one of us'?
We expect minorities to prove they are integrating, but rarely ask ourselves whether we are allowing them to belong.
- RingmasterNo problem a phone call can't solve
As Aleksandar Vučić trades the presidency for the premiership, he is betting on a model of governance in which nothing works unless he personally makes it work.
- Tick, tockOne region, two clocks
While tribal rhetoric treats past grievances as political currency, an unforgiving demographic clock is ticking. Economic integration is no longer a soft diplomatic exercise; it is a brutal necessity.
- Tete-a-TeteNo second act
Ajša Vodnik went from co-owning a television channel to running AmCham Slovenia and chairing AmChams in Europe. She does not believe in second acts.
- Mind the gapSlovenia's largest bank mulls the one Western Balkan market it does not have
NLB is preparing to open a representative office in Albania and would consider an acquisition if a bank came up for sale, the president of its management board told a business forum in Celje.
- Forest floorThe timber trade Slovenia has not built yet
Albania spent €349.3 million on wood imports last year. Slovenia has 2.2 million cubic metres of approved timber going uncut. It supplies €884,000.
- Growing painsLet your children screw up
A generation spared every mistake will eventually inherit problems it has never been allowed to practise solving.
- Neither here nor thereMaribor wants a bigger cut of what passes through it
Slovenia's second city is trying to turn geography into an economic model.
- Young BSFWho are the young people shaping the future of the Euro-Atlantic world?
A generation no longer willing to wait for its opportunity. A generation growing up in a time when security can no longer be taken for granted.
- PREKLOP 2.0Slovenia has plenty of plans. It could do with some decisions
Lightly indebted energy companies and willing banks are meeting a scarcer commodity. Projects far enough along to be financed.
- Sorted, not usedThe price of comfort
Slovenia recycles 59.8 per cent of its municipal waste, yet only 10.1 per cent of the material entering its economy comes from recovered sources. The gap is not a Slovene anomaly but a European one, and it has stopped being an environmental question.
- Urban craftHub for creativity
Center Rog is establishing itself as a unique venue on the European map of creative hubs, bringing together a wide range of production laboratories within a single space.
- Beyond politicsThe creative class
The universality of art is unconditional. The same applies to contemporary creative achievements, whether we have in mind verbal artistic creations or silent, figurative works of art.
- Hemingway's playgroundLeisure with a historic twist: Active isolation in the Soča Valley
Where soldiers once marched through alpine mists, today's travelers arrive to engage with the landscape on entirely different terms. The Soča Valley is the home of the modern holiday.
- Tech beginningsWhen old technology was new
Electric vehicles, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, and quantum computers are no longer just buzzwords; they are real technologies entering and reshaping the market after decades of development.
- The monarchy's best-kept secretCreating memories on an industrial scale
The King's Birthday is not about a date of birth. It is a constitutional celebration, timed for good weather and designed to create beautiful memories at scale.
- Governmental web portalsStatehood by design
Throughout the region, statehood is being projected through HTML. Each state-owned online portal doubles as a strategy in soft power, designed as much for functionality for its citizens as for European commissioners with clipboards.
- Diaspora economyThe Western Balkans diaspora is coming home to invest
For decades, millions kept their homelands afloat by sending money back. Now they're returning with something more powerful: investment, influence, and the means to build lasting economic transformation.