The Balkans: Europe’s Forgotten Frontier

Katya Adler travels to Romania, Kosovo and Serbia. In Romania, Katya visits what will soon be Nato’s largest base in Europe. With Russia’s increasing aggression, Nato’s role in eastern Europe has been beefed up, and Romania has become strategically significant. Katya’s next stop is Europe’s youngest country, Kosovo. She travels down Tony Blair Street – named after the UK prime minister who led the Nato mission there. Twenty-five years after the war ended, Katya meets the ethnic Serbs who still live in Kosovo – and insist the country is still Serbian. Lastly, in Serbia, she visits a coal power plant and discovers there’s a battle for power taking place, with the west, Russia and China all wanting Serbia to be in their sphere of influence. For decades, the west has ignored this corner of Europe, but now, with so many other parts of the world gaining power and influence, the fear is Europe might be losing its foothold in this increasingly important region.