Public sphere

After a day of eerily empty voting polls, the first results of the Greek elections will be available with the exit polls to be released at 7 p.m. The low voter turnout, estimated to be one of the lowest in modern Greek history, may make it harder for pollsters to make an accurate prediction.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu recently stated: "We are going up in the opinion polls ? We are doing everything we can for our votes to increase and to achieve one-party rule." 

They are doing everything they can and they are going up in the polls. 

Romania has until the end of the year to change its privatisation law or face an investigation and possible impeachment by the European Commission, according to media reports.

The business publication Profit.ro has reported that the centre-left government of Prime Minister Victor Ponta has to change the law as it includes provision that could represent state aid.

The World Bank has recommended to Bulgaria to cut Value Added Vax (VAT) levied on medicines as the tax is too high and poses a heavier burden on the poorer patients, Sega news daily reported on Monday.

No bidders have emerged to buy Tanjug, an iconic news agency dating back to the start of the Yugoslav Communist era, although media experts believe the outlet still has potential.

The Serbian government plans to sell 100 per cent of Tanjug's shares at an estimated worth of 760,936 euros.

Last week, Serbia's privatisation Agency said it had not received any official offers.

Bulgaria's central government budget showed a surplus of BGN 890M equivalent to 1.1% of the projected 2015 GDP, the Finance Ministry announced on Friday.

This compared with a budget deficit of BGN 996.4M, or 1.2% of GDP at the end of June 2014.

Economy Minister Zeljko Sertic said on Tuesday there was interest in the privatization of Serbia's state-owned telecommunications company Telekom Srbija.

The list of bidders includes both companies and investment funds, he told B92.

Macedonia's Transport Ministry has issued a call to choose a consultancy firm tasked with coming up with the best privatization model for the national postal service, Makedonska Posta AD.

Italian actor, political activist, turned populist politician and leader of the Five Star movement, Beppe Grillo, was among the Athenians celebrating at Syntagma Square on Sunday night after the verdict of the Greek referendum came out in favour of the ‘No’ campaign.

For technical reasons this column was written before the announcement of the results of yesterday's critical referendum in Greece. By now Greeks will have given their verdict on whether to continue with even more austerity measures after a (failed) five-year austerity program, but in exchange for a new batch of aid from their country's creditors.