News archive of June 2015

The Greek financial crisis will not have severe consequences for the Bulgarian financial sector and business, as stated by the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov Tuesday in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television.

Whispers of a new … bailout agreement emerged late Tuesday after an earlier Eurogroup teleconference, with deliberations set to continue on Wednesday, a more-or-less positive sign amid an avalanche of bleak developments this week — surprise referendum, acrimonious exchanges between Athens and creditors, a week-long bank holiday and capital controls.

Greece will table a new proposal about its debt on Wednesday, German daily FAZ quotes Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem as saying.

According to FAZ, Dijsselbloem said the Eurozone finance ministers would discuss the proposal the very same day.

The Eurogroup rejected on Tuesday the request of the Greek government to extend the bailout programme of the country.

This became clear after the end of the extraordinary teleconference of the eurozone finance ministers.

The conference call was necessitated after the Greek government submitted its latest list of proposals earlier on Tuesday.

The prospect of the Greek government canceling a hastily called referendum on creditors’ proposals has reportedly caused a firestorm of debate within the ruling SYRIZA party, and more importantly, within the Cabinet itself.

The latest EU-facilitated dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo failed to reach agreement between the two sides.

This was announced by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Tuesday.

“Important events for which you are not prepared are going on in Athens, with results which probably won’t match articles you wrote,” EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told a reporters covering the Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, while European Parliament president Martin Schulz added that “what is happening today is historic”.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his gratitude to Bulgaria and its Prime Minister Boyko Borisov for the country's announced contribution to the Investment Plan.

Earlier on Tuesday, it was announced that Bulgaria will contribute EUR 100 M towards projects financed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

The cap controls, a repercussion of a surprise decision by the leftist Tsipras government to call a referendum on creditors’ proposal, also made online shopping with multinationals by holders of Greek cards impossible.