BarBalkans is the project “with blurred boundaries”, whose aim is to give a voice to the Western Balkans’ stories. Politics, culture, society, sports and everything you can find in the highest mountains, in the largest valleys and coasts of the most restless European peninsula. With some real treats, with or without alcohol.
BarBalkans‘ logo explains its essence: the brackets are open and closed, they intertwine and blend together. These brackets are metaphors for blurred boundaries. Like the blurred boundaries among the (Italian) words that are characterizing our trip: bar, barba (beard), Balcani (Balkans). Like the blurred boundaries among the countries and the peoples of this region. They live of contrast and conflict, and share the same history and traditions.
Boundaries define identities. But at the same time they foster the exchange of experiences, showing that physical limitations can be overcome by human relationships. You can be trapped within boundaries. Or you can start from there to discover what lies beyond those limits.
BarBalkans started as a free biweekly newsletter, with a parallel path for subscribers, which follows the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Every second Wednesday of the month an article-podcast retraces the events of that specific month (but 30 years ago), showing causes and consequences of the 10 years of war in the Western Balkans. The preview is free on all streaming platforms: Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast.
BarBalkans is a project by Federico Baccini, journalist for Eunews in Brussels. I obtained my Master degree in Contemporary history with a thesis about the presence of mafia in Northern Italy in the ’80s and ’90s and I attended the “Walter Tobagi” School of Journalism in Milan. I founded BarBalkans in June 2020 and since then I have been committed to making this project grow with original content, both in Italian and in English. I am deepening my knowledge on the Balkan peninsula and for Eunews I am responsible for the EU enlargement, including the relations of the European Union with the Western Balkans.