Customs Office

A year on, Abazovic has his deal with the Church and can point to a string of high-profile organized crime arrests. But while the work of the Constitutional Court has been unblocked, little progress has been made on reforming the judiciary, a key condition of Montenegro's EU accession process.

Montenegrin Customs officers seize tobacco in the Port of Bar. Photo: Government of Montenegro

The Customs Office said it seized eight containers with 4,000 boxes of tobacco owned by a US company, Lenora International, registered in the US state of Delaware.

North Macedonia has defended its decision to stop a shipment of 920 copies of a Bulgarian book intended for a Bulgarian cultural centre in Skopje, after Bulgaria on Sunday sent a protest note. The books were not allowed across the Deve Bair border crossing between the two countries at the weekend.

At a round table on January 22, the Kosovo Manufacturing Club claimed that the 100-per-cent tariff imposed on products from Serbia and Bosnia in 2018 has had a positive impact on Kosovo's economy.

North Macedonia's government said on Tuesday that it has decided to form an "operational" anti-graft team headed by Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski and including other top officials.

The team will "work uncompromisingly and through a coordinated approach in the fight against crime and corruption", the government said in a statement.

The ex Secretary General of Internal Affairs Georgy Kostov is the new Director of the Customs Office, said the Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, announced BNT.

Rosalia Dimitrova goes back in the Administration of the director post, at her express request.

The Customs Office unit of Svilengrad, Southeastern Bulgaria, will shut down as of 00:00 EET on Monday, January 11.

Late in December the government announced the unit would become part of the respective offices of Plovdiv and Burgas.

Bulgaria will keep its restrictive currency board system until it adopts the euro, according to the governance programme of GERB-lead coalition.

Bulgaria's Specialized Prosecutor's Office said Georgi Kostadinov, Deputy Director of Customs Office in the border town of Svilengrad, was indicted on Thursday.

Kostadinov is charged with the possession of significant quantities of drug substances with the purpose of supplying them as part of an organized criminal group, according to the Bulgarian private channel NOVA TV.