Austria out front as EU zeroes in on tax evasion
The European Union’s efforts to combat tax evasion took a small step forward on Wednesday as Austria agreed in principle at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels to eventually start sharing bank account...
View ArticleBulgaria’s Dossier Commission names another former State Security agent in...
Bulgaria’s Dossier Commission, the statutory body that checks and discloses the names of people in certain categories who formerly worked for the country’s communist-era State Security, has named yet...
View ArticleWhat lies ahead for Greece’s economy
Greece’s Central Bank expects the country’s economy to shrink by 4.6 per cent in 2013, a report released on May 29 2013 shows. The good news is that the report, signed by Governor G. Provopoulos,...
View ArticleEU and euro zone economic, business sentiment pick up in May
Economic and business sentiment in the European Union and euro zone improved in May 2013, according to survey results released on May 30. In May the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) picked up again....
View ArticleBulgarian Parliament passes maternity leave hike
Bulgaria’s Parliament passed at first reading on May 30 two bills that envision raising maternity leave to 310 leva a month, tabled by the ruling socialists and opposition party GERB. The difference...
View ArticleBulgaria’s Interior Ministry chief secretary, security agency chief quit as...
Interior Ministry chief secretary Kalin Georgiev has resigned, Bulgaria’s new Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said on May 30 2013, while later the same day, the head of the State Agency for National...
View ArticleOn World No-Tobacco Day, Bulgaria faces new smoking ban debate
As annual World No-Tobacco Day is marked on May 31 2013, with the World Health Organisation and European Union among those stepping up calls in the campaign against smoking, Bulgaria finds itself back...
View ArticleMoldova’s pro-EU parties form new government coalition, invest cabinet
Moldova’s parliament elected a new speaker and invested a new cabinet headed by Iurie Leanca on May 30 after the pro-Western parties in the legislature signed a coalition agreement to form a new...
View ArticleWhat’s On: Children’s festival in Sofia’s South Park
Bulgaria celebrates the Day of the Child on June 1, and among planned events is a childrens’ festival on June 1 and 2 from 10am each day in Sofia’s South Park. The festival, entitled “I believe in...
View ArticleAsteroid 1998 QE2 to make close encounter
A 2.7-kilometer-wide asteroid will pass within 5.8 million kilometers of Earth on Friday, May 31, and while it poses no threat to Earth, it will provide a chance to collect scientific information about...
View ArticleWhat is to become of them?
Gazing on Bulgaria’s newly-elected 42nd National Assembly and the personalities that dominated that day of high drama that was the endorsement – by some, at least – of the Oresharski government, it was...
View ArticleUN war crimes court acquits two Milosevic allies
A United Nations war crimes court has acquitted two key allies of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. The men were accused of involvement in murder and other crimes committed by soldiers...
View ArticleBulgaria’s new Foreign Minister on the Western Balkans, former State Security...
Bulgaria’s new Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin, a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party cabinet that came to power in Sofia on May 29, has spoken of the approach that his ministry will take on the...
View ArticleBulgarian President holds firm against appointing ambassadors who were...
In one of the first most significant differences between Bulgaria’s socialist-led government and the country’s head of state, President Rossen Plevneliev has held firm against appointing ambassadors...
View ArticleSirens to sound in Bulgaria on June 2 2013 to honour memory of Hristo Botev
Across Bulgaria, sirens will sound at noon on June 2 2013 in an annual custom honouring the memory of revolutionary, poet and rebel Hristo Botev, who died in 1876 in the struggle against Ottoman rule....
View Article68 000 young people unemployed in Bulgaria in April 2013 – Eurostat
April 2013 saw 5.62 million young people – meaning under-25s – unemployed in the European Union, about 68 000 of them in Bulgaria, according to figures released by EU statistics agency Eurostat on May...
View ArticleEuro zone annual inflation to be 1.4% in May 2013 – flash estimate
Annual inflation in the 17-member euro zone is expected to be 1.4 per cent in May 2013, up from 1.2 per cent in April, according to a flash estimate on May 31 from Eurostat, the statistical office of...
View ArticleBulgarian ‘vampire’ skeleton set to return home
A year after archaeological digs in the Black Sea town of Sozopol yielded a well-preserved male skeleton buried with a ploughshare in its chest – which local and foreign media quickly dubbed the...
View ArticleSocialist move for power shift over anti-organised crime squad takes first...
Two days after Bulgaria’s socialist party-appointed government came to power, the National Assembly approved the first reading of legislation moving the Chief Directorate for Combating Organised Crime...
View ArticleDemonstrations in Bulgaria in solidarity with protesters in Turkey
Bulgaria is among European countries where demonstrations have been held in solidarity with the protesters in major cities in Turkey. In Sofia, demonstrators holding placards gathered outside the...
View Article37 arrested in Bulgaria in operation in 17 EU countries against scrap metal...
Thirty-seven people were arrested in Bulgaria as part of a two-day operation in 17 European Union countries against organised metal thieves who operate all over Europe, and to the many scrap yards that...
View ArticleAnti-government protests subside in Turkey
Residents of Istanbul and Ankara woke up to a quiet morning Sunday as demonstrations against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to have subsided for now. Thousands of Turks...
View ArticleAshton expresses EU’s ‘deep concern’ at violence in Turkey
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is expressing deep concern at the violence that occurred in Istanbul and some other cities in Turkey, and regrets disproportionate use of force by...
View ArticleProtest in Sofia against ‘Oligarchski’ government
Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia saw a protest on June 2 against the new socialist Plamen Oresharski government, dubbed “Oligarchski” by participants, who also hissed and booed the headquarters of the...
View ArticleOne dead, four missing in floods in Czech Republic
A woman died in Třebenice outside Prague on June 2 when her house collapsed because of flooding and four people are missing after floods hit the Czech Republic, while homes have been evacuated across...
View ArticlePrague braces for heavy floods
The Czech Republic government was set to hold an emergency meeting at 6pm on June 2 to address the impact of floods in the Western part of the country that have claimed one life and led to widespread...
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Poland’s Dreamliner back in service
Poland’s LOT national airlines resumed commercial flights of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner on Saturday after over four months after the jets were grounded due to battery problems. Regulators grounded all 50...
View ArticleHeavy flooding reaches Prague
Five people have been confirmed dead and four are missing as a result of the flooding that has devastated parts of the Czech Republic, a police spokeswoman said Monday. In addition, as of 11 a.m....
View ArticleBulgaria’s new cabinet ministers spell out plans
A more powerful State Agency for National Security, recruitment of civilians to act as “civil guards” to assist police, a rethink of defence reform and the rehabilitation of diplomats who were State...
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Can Poland end its toxic relationship with coal?
Poland’s love affair with coal goes way back. For decades coal was the favorite for energy: mined locally, and cheap. In those days, the environment was pretty low on the agenda. But things are slowly...
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