France

By Costas Iordanidis

Recent revelations by the Financial Times of the behind-the-scenes machinations at Cannes in November 2011 that led to the downfall of Greece’s then-Prime Minister George Papandreou – a negligible loss of course – and where the leaders of the European Union lost complete control of themselves leave a bitter taste.

Day-ahead power markets were linked from Portugal to Finland on Tuesday as the European Union seeks to integrate electricity markets by the end of this year across the 28-nation bloc.

Spain and Portugal joined the existing 15-country market coupling project, linked through an interconnector between Spain and France.

By Paul Sandle

TUI Travel, Europe's biggest tour operator by revenues, reported a dip in the number of holidays sold for this summer, as the slow pace of economic recovery in much of the region offset a resurgence in the popularity of traveling to Greece.

BELGRADE - Program of the sixth Moliere Days in Serbia will take place in Belgrade's Dom Omladine and the French Institute in Belgrade and Novi Sad from May 13 to 16, institute director Jean-Luc Goester announced.

Crisis-hit Greeks remain deeply skeptical of many aspects of the European project despite signs of rebound in overall sentiment, an opinion poll carried out by the Pew Research Center and published on Monday has found.

ROME - Serbian female tennis player Ana Ivanovic qualified for the Rome WTA second round as she defeated Italy's Karin Knapp, 6-1, 6-1.

In the fight for the third round, Ivanovic will cross rackets with France's Alize Cornet who defeated Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium in the Monday match, 6-3, 6-2.

Photo Tanjug, N. Milosevic (archive)

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso spoke to Antonis Samaras and Evangelos Venizelos in private in November 2011 and encouraged them to block George Papandreou’s proposal for a referendum on Greece’s euro membership, a Financial Times report claimed on Monday.

The Hollywood stars Juliette Binoche and Gabriel Byrne will arrive in Bulgaria for a new movie shoot in May-June.

Byrne who is known for films such as The Usual Suspects, Stigmata, and Oscar Award Winner Juliette Binoche (Chocolat, The English Patient) will star in a new movie called Nobody Wants the Night (Nadie quiere la noche) directed by Isabel Coixet.

Bulgarians Grigor Dimitrov and Tsvetana Pironkova will play their first matches of the Masters tennis tournament in Rome on Monday.

Dimitrov, seeded 12th in the tournament, will play France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin. The match is scheduled for 1 PM Bulgarian time.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande warned new sanctions might be approved against Moscow if May 25's Ukrainian presidential poll fails.