The symbol of German industrial might is wobbling. Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, is considering closing four factories in Germany and cutting close to 100,000 jobs. According to sources familiar with the matter, one in every three jobs at the company could disappear.

For a country where the car industry is almost a national identity, this isn't an ordinary corporate story - it's a blow to the heart of the German economic model. For decades, Volkswagen was the proof that Europe could build, export and employ. Now the same company is squeezed by the electric transition, Chinese competition, and costs it can no longer carry.

Behind the figure of 100,000 layoffs stand families, towns built around plants, entire regions that live off a single industry. When a giant of this size starts talking about shutting factories, it's a signal that the change long announced has finally arrived - and arrived painfully.

Why does this matter to us too? Because the Balkan economy is tightly tied to the German one - a big share of our exports, investment and jobs depend on German companies, the carmakers among them. When Volkswagen coughs, the whole region catches a cold. And as Germany struggles with its own transition, the question for the smaller economies around it stays open: what happens when Europe's engine stalls?