Balkaninsight.com

A US judge brought in to help reform the former Soviet republic’s notorious court system says 30 years is "not long to change a society".

Over the past nine years, Macedonia has spent more than 40 million euro on newly employed minority civil servants who were never actually given jobs.

Serbian and Bosnian exports to Kosovo have reportedly tumbled since Kosovo imposed taxes on imports on November 6 – with no resolution of the trade war in sight.

Under the slogan 'Our time is coming!' over 20,000 people marched on Sunday in the streets of the capital in support of the main pro-Russian opposition Socialist Party, which hopes to win next February's elections.

Led by war veterans, victims’ families and politicians, Croatians gathered in the town of Vukovar to commemorate the fall of the town to Belgrade’s forces in 1991 and mourn the victims. 

The sixth Montenegro Pride Parade, which took place under the slogan “We do not love chains", was held on Saturday with several hundred LGBT rights supporters, alongside politicians, marching through the centre of the Montenegrin capital Podgorica for the colourful event.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Valeri Simeonov resigned on Friday night, after more than a month of protests calling for his sacking.

As Croatia prepares to mark the 27thanniversary of the fall of Vukovar, the Humanitarian Law Centre said the Yugoslav People’s Army deployed massive force during the siege and capture of the Croatian town in 1991.

Macedonia’s fugitive former PM Nikola Gruevski crossed three Balkan countries using Macedonian ID to reach Hungary where he has applied for asylum – while Hungarian diplomats helped provide transport logistics.

Right-wing nationalists from many countries gathered in Sofia to discuss forming a front for the European elections next May – but the star of the show was French nationalist firebrand Marine Le Pen.

Romanians empied their wallets on Friday with the country's biggest retailer eMag, which launched the campaign in 2011, reporting sales of 63 million euros by midday.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals said it is investigating whether Ratko Mladic, who is in custody pending his war crimes appeal, broke any rules by speaking on a Serbian television show by phone.

The International Commission on Missing Persons has started the long-delayed process of searching for the remains of several thousand Albanians who went missing under Communism.

The ex-PM’s curiously easy getaway will reinforce suspicions that the new authorities preferred his flight abroad to the prospect of having a ‘patriotic martyr’ rotting in jail at home – and perhaps staging a comeback.

Kosovo’s Special Prosecution has relaunched investigations into the case of Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman, who recently became the first woman in the country to speak openly about being a wartime rape victim.

An imaginative project has been collecting drawings from thousands of refugees and migrants across Europe and North Africa, in which they sketch their lives before, now and in the future.

Father Robin Fox has led Belgrade’s small but passionate Anglican community for 14 years. “Differences don’t matter,” says Fox.

Belgrade hopes to progress EU membership talks but experts warn continued focus on Kosovo’s status means Serbia’s reform agenda has stagnated, or is even going backwards.

Macedonia’s ex-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski used a Hungarian embassy car to flee through Albania and Montenegro on his way to Hungary, where he has requested political asylum, Albania police confirmed.

Writer and politician Mit’hat Frasheri, praised for his contribution to Albanian culture but criticised for collaborating with the Nazis, was reburied at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Edi Rama.