Jyrki

Jean-Claude Juncker could step down as President of the European Commission as early as next month, according to Italian newspaper “La Republica”.
The former Prime Minister of Luxembourg  has previously said he would not seek a second term as European Commission president when his five-year term expires in 2019.

Greece needs to adopt structural reforms if it wants to get more bailout funds from creditors, European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told Austrian newspaper Der Standard.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Tuesday said that Romania has the support of the European Commission and the European Parliament concerning the accession to the Schengen area, however it still has to persuade "one or two member states" which "still have reserves" in this regard.

Photo credit: (c) Angelo BREZOIANU / AGERPRES PHOTO

European partners' trust in Greece has fallen and made negotiations harder but the country's problems can still be solved if all sides do their part, European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen said on a visit to Athens on Thursday.

Polls suggest the center-right opposition could defeat conservative National Coalition Party in the vote that is being held across Finland on Sunday.

European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen arrives in Sofia to present the European Commission's Investment Plan for Europe (EC IPE) known as the "Juncker Plan."

Jyrki Katainen, the European Commission's Vice President for Jobs, Growth and Investment, is due to visit Bulgaria on April 16.

Katainen, also a former Finnish MP, will be in the Bulgarian capital Sofia as part of his Europe-wide tour promoting the EU Investment Plan that has become known as the "Juncker Plan" in the past few months.

Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb has argued the next government in Helsinki should bear in mind the option to seek NATO membership.

Upon taking office last year after the resignation of Jyrki Katainen, Stubb had ruled out any prospect that his cabinet might take such a step, even though some media reports suggested otherwise.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta stressed on Monday that the meeting he had with visiting European Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen at Victoria Palace (the Govt's offices) earlier in the day had gone very well and had focused on unveiling the new 315 billion euro investment plan announced by the EU executive's chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

Three committees at the European Parliament are to take part in the interrogation of Kristalina Georgieva in end-September.

Georgieva and all other commissioner candidates are to be heard at the sessions scheduled between September 29 and October 7 at the European Parliament.