News archive of May 2023

The European Commission wants to make online transactions faster and safer by making immediate payments the main option to pay for online items or simply transferring money. The EU's proposed law aims to make quick payments a barrier to the dominance of international systems such as Visa and MasterCard, as well as the entry of large internet companies into the payments sector.

"There are suspects in the attempted assassination of the Prosecutor General". This was announced by acting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Demerdzhiev at a briefing in the Council of Ministers, where a meeting of Prime Minister Galab Donev with representatives of the security services was held. However, he refused to give details.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis continues his efforts to lure back the part of the electorate that voted for New Democracy in 2019 but had become alienated as a result of issues that range from the high cost of living and a perceived inability to listen to the average person, to the wiretapping cases and, lately, the rail tragedy at Tempe.

BRUSSELS - EU foreign policy and security chief Josep Borrell has called for Tuesday a high-level meeting of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue that will address a draft statute of a Community of Serb Municipalities and a declaration on missing persons.

At the beginning of 2023 Bulgaria gained access to Turkey's terminals and gas transmission network under a long-term deal that would help the country replace supplies once provided by Russia.

A spell of stormy weather will be sweeping into Greece from the west on Tuesday afternoon, bringing downpours, thunder and hail to many parts all through Wednesday.

Weather events and patterns in the Mediterranean indicate that the region, including Greece, will experience a summer as hot if not hotter than the last, which brought successive heatwaves and raised the climate change alarm. 

Ivan Geshev, General Prosecutor of Bulgaria. Photo: Office of the Prosecutor General.

Authorities have described the blast, which happened as Geshev's vehicle was slowing down on a highway near the town of Samokov on Monday, as intended to kill the top prosecutor.

Geshev was travelling with his wife and children but no one in the car was injured.

The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo meet in Brussels on Tuesday to continue talks on the implementation of a European Union-backed 11-point plan to normalize ties between the two, but tensions continue to simmer.

MOSTAR - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic met on Tuesday in Mostar with Deputy Chairman of the House of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina Dragan Covic, who chairs the Croat People Caucus of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The meeting in the Caucus building began shortly before 10 am.