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Depuis des années, les sorties de devises liées aux opérations d’importation constituaient un angle mort du contrôle des changes. La Banque d’Algérie vient de le […]

L’article Sorties illégales de devises : une nouvelle instruction de la BA bloque une faille dans les importations est apparu en premier sur .

US President Trump and Chinese President Xi have held several rounds of talks behind closed doors. Although little is known about what was discussed, both parties later emphasised their constructive cooperation. Trump spoke of friendship and a "great future". Xi said that the two countries could strengthen each other. Europe's press tries to figure out what is going on behind the scenes.

Andriy Yermak, former Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and a close confidant of President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been remanded in custody for two months by the High Anti-Corruption of Ukraine. However, he could be released on bail for the equivalent of about 2.7 million euros. He and five other people are accused of money laundering in connection with the construction of a luxury residential complex.

After two terms in office, Jerome Powell will resign as US Federal Reserve Chair this Friday. His track record as head of the US central bank is mixed. Critics accuse him of mistakes, particularly in the fight against inflation. But when Donald Trump threatened to undermine the Fed's independence, he stood firm against the US president. Powell will be succeeded by Trump's preferred candidate, Kevin Warsh.

On Saturday, hundreds of hardcore Slavia Prague fans stormed the pitch carrying lit flares and attacked the team and fans of Sparta, their local rivals. A 3-2 lead shortly before the final whistle would have secured the league title for their club. Instead, the match was suspended and the opponents were declared the winners. Slavia must now play four home games without spectators and pay a hefty fine.

The policy brief authored by Dr. Ana Krstinovska, Senior Research Fellow, think nea – New Narratives of EU Integration & Research Fellow, Wider Europe Programme, ELIAMEP titled: “From Raw Ores to Strategic Autonomy: The Western Balkans in Europe’s Critical Raw Materials Strategy”, is an expansion of the finding of the thematic report “Raw Materials for a Resilient Europe: The EU’s Strategic Partnership with the Western Balkans” (authored by Dr. A. Krstinovska and Dr. A. Wolf) and it examines the strategic importance of the Western Balkans for Europe’s critical raw materials security and industrial resilience. The brief is part of think nea – New Narratives of EU Integration, an initiative implemented by the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and supported by the Open Society Foundations – Western Balkans.

Against the backdrop of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and growing geopolitical competition over access to strategic resources, the brief analyses how the Western Balkans have emerged as a significant, yet underutilized, component of Europe’s raw materials ecosystem. It highlights the region’s deposits of copper, lithium, aluminium, nickel, antimony, and rare earth elements, while examining the geopolitical and economic implications of existing extraction and trade patterns.

The analysis demonstrates how current value chains often channel raw ores and concentrates from the Western Balkans towards China, while processed goods flow to EU markets, reinforcing Europe’s strategic vulnerabilities and limiting regional industrial development. The paper also explores the growing role of non-EU actors in the region’s extractive industries, the lack of local refining and processing capacities, and the governance, environmental, and social challenges associated with major mining projects.

Drawing on these findings, the brief argues that the EU should move beyond a narrowly extractive approach and embed raw materials cooperation within the enlargement process itself. It proposes a strategy centred on value-chain upgrading, regional industrial integration, investment in processing and recycling capacities, updated geological mapping, and stronger governance conditionality linked to EU accession chapters.

The paper concludes that the Western Balkans can contribute substantially to Europe’s strategic autonomy if integrated into EU industrial and regulatory frameworks in a credible and sustainable manner. In this sense, the brief presents raw materials cooperation not only as an economic necessity, but also as a geopolitical and enlargement opportunity capable of strengthening both European resilience and the EU accession perspective of the region.

You can read the policy brief here.