
This issue of the SEER Journal for Labour and Social Affairs in Eastern Europe for 2020 focuses on EU-western Balkans relations at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a particular insights to the policy approaches in Croatia and Turkey.
In terms of the number of cases per capita, western Balkans countries have been affected by the pandemic to a lesser extent than most EU member states, although more so than neighbouring EU countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. At the same time, the Covid-19 outbreak poses a major challenge to fragile health expenditures, a lack of medical equipment and a shortage of personnel not least due to massive outwards migration to western Europe.