Council of Europe

An election official holds up a ballot paper during the counting process for the Istanbul mayoral elections re-run in June 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/AKIN CELIKTAS

The Venice Commission said that even under the new law, the election threshold remains "among the highest in Europe", despite being reduced from 10 per cent to 7 per cent.

"On May 9, we celebrate the holiday of a united Europe. This Europe, founded in the middle of the last century by true visionaries who survived the horrors of the two world wars, division and great human suffering.

"I will come to Sofia as often as necessary in order to reach a decision (lifting the Bulgarian veto on North Macedonia's membership in the EU) by the end of June, we have no time, the war has shown us how important the European integration is."

Moldova made little progress on reforms to the judiciary, said the latest report of Council of Europe's Group of States against Corruption, GRECO, launched on Wednesday. 

"GRECO evaluated the implementation of the recommendations in a first compliance Report in 2018 and a second compliance report in 2020″, a press release said. 

Ankara has accused the Council of Europe of interfering in an ongoing judicial process on businessman Osman Kavala after the body's political organ voted in favor of moving the infringement procedure against Turkey forward.

Serbia has followed "most" Venice Commission recommendations about its constitutional amendments - but the risk of politization of main judicial bodies still need to be reduced, the constitutional law advisory body of the Council of Europe said in its urgent opinion issued Wednesday.

"Serbia is a key country. Without EU accession, there is no reason to talk about security and identity. Europe needs Serbia more than Serbia needs the EU. Otherwise, security will be at risk," Orbn said at the panel, talking about the problem of migration.
Vui pointed out that there are three things that could be important for everyone.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn paid for a full-page advertisement outlining its EU vision, entitled "On the future of the European Union", and the seventh point reads: "Serbia should be admitted to the EU".

Familiarity with the key European institutions remains high among Bulgarians - European Parliament (90%), European Commission (78%), European Central Bank (84%) This shows a Eurobarometer survey conducted between 12 and 18 February 2021.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu on Friday participated in the 131st meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE), organised as a videoconference, on which occasion he stressed that solving prolonged conflicts is a priority for Romania.