College of Commissioners

The commitment of the European Commission to assist where necessary after the train tragedy in Tempi was expressed by the vice-president of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, in a press conference after the weekly meeting of the College of Commissioners. At the same time, he expressed everyone's "pain at the unspeakable destruction".

European Commission's proposed new authority to prepare against future health crises by developing "medical countermeasures."

Tasks and powers of the new Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) will be detailed in a decision to be discussed today (14 September) at a meeting of the 27-strong College of Commissioners.

Brdo pri Kranju – Rule of law was one of the main topics discussed during Thursday’s visit by the College of Commissioners. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was important to always respect the rule of law and European values. Prime Minister Janez Janša said that in a rule of law, final decisions are in the hands of courts.

Brdo pri Kranju – Media freedom was one of the topics that the College of Commissioners discussed Thursday as they met the government at the outset of Slovenia’s presidency of the EU. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expects that Slovenia will swiftly sort out the financing of the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) and ensure its independence.

Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu - on a visit to Brussels - had a meeting on Thursday with Frans Timmermans, European Commission Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal, expressing in context Romania's readiness to actively participates in the implementation of long-term objectives agreed through the Strategic Agenda for 2019-2024.

After almost four months, travellers from third-countries will finally be eligible to travel to the Schengen Area. Starting from July 1, the European Commission will start permitting non-EU and non-Schengen travellers to enter the borderless territory, gradually and partially.

Greece is seeking measures from Brussels that will pave the way for safely reopening the European Union's internal borders next month in a bid to boost its flagging tourism sector, Politico has reported, citing a non-paper submitted by Athens to the European Commission head of Wednesday's meeting of the College of Commissioners.

Former European Commissioner Christos Stylianides has been appointed visiting professor-in-practice at the department of health policy of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) after receiving the green light from the College of Commissioners, it was announced Wednesday.

The evolution of the situation in Romania, the first months of 2019 in terms of judicial system reform and the anticorruption fight was a source of great concern for the Commission, as a result, the European Commission (EC) had to inform the Romanian authorities in May 2019 that if the necessary improvements were not made, or if further negative steps were taken, the Commission would take steps

The European Commission will present the Monitoring Report on Bulgaria's progress at the regular meeting of the College of Commissioners tomorrow in Strasbourg.