European Commissioner

Romania's North-East region has the highest rate of absorption of European Funds in the 2007-2013 period, said on Saturday, in Iasi, European Commissioner Corina Cretu, in the debate titled "Dialogue with citizens".

European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu on Friday called on Romania's Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu to speed up the completion of documents for the construction of three regional hospitals in Romania.

Bulgaria might abandon the idea to resort to EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva as a new UN Secretary General nomination, proposing her alongside current nominee Irina Bokova instead, news website Mediapool.bg reports, citing "sources".

The Bulgarian government will officially nominate Kristalina Georgieva for Secretary General of the UN, government sources say.

The announcement might be made as early as next week, at an extraordinary cabinet sitting on Tuesday, news website Mediapool quotes the sources as saying. 

European Commissioner for Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici spokesperson Annika Breidthardt announced on Tuesday that the technical teams of the institutions will return to Athens within the week.

According to Breidthardt, the return of the institutions’ technical teams to Athens is “an important step” to prepare the visit of the heads of the institutions in the near future.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with President of European Parliament Martin Schulz on Wednesday during his two-day visit to Brussels.

Refugee issue and the negotiations between the government and the institutions dominate the agenda of Mr. Mitsotakis meetings with political leaders in Brussels on February 17-18.

EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger on Jan. 3 threatened to put Poland on notice for infringing on common European values by passing legislation giving the government control of the state media.

EU Commissioner Gunther Oettinger has warned Poland that it risks to be put under monitoring for passing controversial legislation that would give the country's conservative government the right to appoint the heads of public broadcasters.  

Six EU commissioners will visit Turkey in March 2016 for a high-level economic platform meeting, the Turkish EU Minister Volkan Bozk?r has said, while also noting that Turkish and EU officials would gather in January within the framework of a high-level energy dialogue mechanism.

“The most important element of the new European Border and Coast Guard Agency is that it goes beyond what Frontex was able to do, but that we do not replace member states’ responsibilities and definitely not their sovereignty,” European Commissioner for Migration and Internal Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos said in the European Parliament Plenary session on the European Border and Coast Guard.