After a recent block on North Macedonia’s accession to the EU by France, the Prime Minister announced his resignation on Saturday, leading to snap elections that may place anti-EU opposition in power within the country. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev referred to his country as “victims of the EU’s historical mistake” while announcing the election, and said it would be up to the Macedonian people to “decide the road we are going to take.” The leader of Zaev’s opposition, conservative Hristijan Mickoski of the VMRO-DPMNE part, had previously called for snap…
Two Balkan states which have long pursued membership in the European Union have faced a setback as the necessary talks to consider an entry are stalled by EU member states. Albania and North Macedonia have seen their efforts stymied by a French-led effort to change the system by which new nations are admitted to the EU. North Macedonia, which was formerly known as Macedonia before changing its name to resolve a dispute with Greece, has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005. Albania was listed for consideration in 2014.…
A test case for the solar road technology which attracted attention in 2016 has now been declared a failure by the Global Construction Review and France’s Le Monde. A one kilometre solar panel road that was opened in Normandy, near the town of Tourouvre, in 2016, has failed to live up to promised standards of durability or energy production. According to Le Monde reporting from July, the solar panels have degraded to the point that 100 metres of the road had to be removed entirely. Power production only reached half of what was…