The presidential bid in Serbia remains important, both for the show and for the institutions

Serbia held on Sunday, 6 May, a comprehensive election that didn’t pose many surprises but remains important in terms of the repositioning of the main political players on the domestic scene and the implications for the institutional checks and balances. Serbian citizens went to the polls to elect members of the national parliament and the regional parliament of the northern Vojvodina province, local councillors and mayors and a president. However formal and inconsequential the election of a president in a parliamentary democracy may seem, in Serbia this vote carries a special charge. It is both an outright, individualised expression of the performance of the main parties and actually a determinant of the balance of power among Serbia’s main institutions, given the president has the right to be formally member of a political party and keeps his influence there and in the parliamentary caucus.

Four chapters in a study on the Western Balkans

The Institute for Regional and International Studies (IRIS) just published a study, The Western Balkans in 2010/11: Departures in Democratisation and European Integration in Europe's Southeast, in which I have four country-chapters on Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. I also contributed the conclusion. The study covers developments in the period from October 2010 to January 2012. It is accessible here.

Six things I learnt about wine in 2011

1. Pinot Noir has become arguably the most important phenomenon in my wine world. From Burgundy to Alsace to New Zealand to Chile, I have dived into these tender territories and depth. I have travelled the whole world in a galleon, and that boat’s name was Pinot.

2. Europe is sophistication. Red earthiness, mushroomness, floor rather than foliage; white crispness, limestone, sea rather than orchard. My land is somewhere in between, but my devotion is now with the Old World. Now that I have started to understand it.

3. Bulgarian small wineries are making charming headway. This country, which, contrary to local perceptions, has never been a major wine producer, has shown perceptiveness for small chateaux with master winemakers, and their output of wines based on indigenous and foreign grapes has struck me with its unpretentious quality.

4. Muscadet with Normandy oysters in Paris.

5. Muscadet with Normandy oysters in Brussels.

6. Chablis. On its own.

Snapshots of Bruxelles/Brussel

Something like an hour to get out of Brussels International. Friendly signs and fast conveyors make you feel you are moving at a remarkable speed, but in fact you have the feeling this is your first clash with the corridors of Brussels.

I know the Brussels approaches from the south, from Charleroi. This is new.

Flashback: French rather than Flemish.

Flashback: They don’t care about languages.

Meeting old friends and nice people from around the Black Sea. We are here to devise ways of better communication with the Corridors. I see it that way.

Brussels Louise, a bit up north, the buildings are just like Knightsbridge, tall, red and intrusive, are we in London?

Bilingual. Bruxelles/Brussel. Art-Loi/Kunst-Wet. Vin/Wijn. Huîtres/Oesters.

Armenia-Macedonia 4-1, Azerbaijan-Austria 1-4, BiH- Luxembourg 5-0, Slovakia-Russia 0-1, Turkey-Germany 1-3, Romania-Belarus 2-2, Netherlands-Moldova 2-0, Belgium-Kazakhstan 4-1, Serbia-Italy 1-1, Greece-Croatia 2-0, Montenegro-England 2-2

Friendlies: Ukraine-Bulgaria 3-0

Lots of coriander, salmon, duck, beetroot, tomato, butter, goat cheese, parsley, cream.

Pays d’Oc as a major attendance on the wine front. Is Languedoc a new fashion in Brussels or is it just a solution to priciness?

Taxi driver an old black man of 40-50, no seat belt, bumped TWICE into the car in front of us, almost got sued, jumped a red traffic light, made a traffic jam at a small street, had no change to give us, we got out, he came back in 10 mins to collect cash, I hope he reached home safely.

Refusal to be let to a black party. At the club, we were just told, “This is a Black Party”. Kind of racist, isn't it?

Belga cigarettes, package of 25.

Bar “King” just beside the hotel, near Louise/Louiza. A Bulgarian Roma waitress with perfect French and Bulgarian Roma friends. Had a bunch of Chimays and Duvels at a place where Brussels expressed itself at its best.

I seldom get attached to a city.