Balkan Insight

New report says number of war-crimes trials continues to decline, while crimes against Serbian civilians and prisoners-of-war are rarely investigated.

Our selection of Premium stories this week takes a look at Washington’s shifting foreign policy priorities in the Balkans, a suspicious drug trawl, surging property prices and more.

With a new law on ‘fair’ representation in North Macedonia’s public administration stalled, hiring is heavily determined by an outdated university ranking system that critics say puts Albanian graduates at a disadvantage.

Financial pressures are now the greatest threat to the survival of small, independent media in Serbia, journalists say.

Elsewhere, suspected Russian missile crashes in Poland; Hungary sets up agency to recover assets stolen under Orban government; Slovak president calls for more use of Chinese tech on visit to Beijing; Czech government warns of rising online youth radicalisation.

Donald Trump’s second term has coincided with a significant increase in lobbying efforts by Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity, resulting, it seems, in the lifting of US sanctions on Milorad Dodik and his family and allies.

Serbian women’s right organisations welcome Montenegrin law amendments introducing paid menstrual leave – and call for similar advance in their own country.

Launched on the anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, a billboard campaign in New York marked the latest attempt by Bosnia’s Republika Srpska to promote an alternative, highly-selective narrative of what went on in the Bosnian war.

Arrest of unnamed suspects relates to ongoing excavation of suspected mass grave near Zubin Potok – which some believes may contain remains of 23 Kosovo Albanians abducted in 1999.

Former PM seen as key architect of modern Turkey's 'soft power' strategy in region leaves politics after his party fails to make breakthrough.

Hungary will become the only country in Europe without a printed political daily when Magyar Nemzet switches to a weekly publication on August 1. Other smaller European media markets are likely to go down the same path.

Record-low water levels in the river – blamed on climate change and historic mismanagement – are affecting agriculture, shipping and energy production.

Experts warn major alterations in media ownership could test country’s democratic resilience and spread disinformation at crucial moment, as EU membership looms.

Fire service pays tribute to two firefighters who died battling a forest blaze on Crete, saying they 'fell heroically in the line of duty'.

Nearly three decades after fighting ended, Kosovo has compiled a list of dead and missing from the 1998-99 war, though it still does not distinguish between civilians and combatants or specify ethnicity.

Red Star Belgrade and the Serbian Progressive Party have successive victories in common – and both benefit from a system that consistently reinforces the power of whoever is at the top.

Amid an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, a massive cull of sheep and goats on Lesvos threatens livelihoods - and a way of life.

Rights organisations in Montenegro welcome law change offering women suffering from painful menstrual cramps two days' paid leave each month.

Former guerrilla turned politician Sami Lushtaku is cleared of obstructing justice and intimidating witnesses in his trial for war crimes – of which he was cleared in 2017.

Retrial upholds ten-year sentence for ethnic Gorani ex-police officer who assaulted ethnic Albanian prisoners during the Kosovo war, one of whom died.