News archive of February 2019

The leader of former coalition partner Independent Greeks (ANEL), Panos Kammenos, responded indignantly to a government idea to help the party retain its parliamentary group, saying ANEL "doesn't want favors."

ANEL is facing the prospect of being left with four lawmakers, which would bring it below the threshold for parliamentary groups.

Greece's return to international debt markets in January with a issue worth 2.5 billion euros is credit positive for the junk-rated country, ratings agency Moody's said on Friday.

"It was Greece's first debt issued outside of a programme after almost a decade of reliance on funding from the EU and IMF," Moody's analyst Michail Michailopoulos wrote in a note to clients.

The Turkish Treasury will repay debts worth 66 billion Turkish Liras (around $12.7 billion) in the February-April period, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on Jan. 31.

Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu stated on Friday, within the informal meeting of the foreign affairs minister of the EU (Gymnich), that a particular aspect was represented by the fact that the representatives of Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia sat at the same table, agreeing the idea of creating some necessary conditions for the Western Balkans countries to join the Europea

After leaving the EU, the UK is determined to promote free trade and create new relations with its partners, Romania included, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Friday.

The Greek government is preparing draft bills and presidential degrees that will help mitigate the effects of a British exit from the European Union without a deal in place, news agency Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

"They are and will remain part of Kosovo. This is a closed issue for me," the Kosovo president has told Tirana based News24 broadcaster

Thaci also recalled a meeting with Swedish official Carl Bildt who "presented to him the option of Kosovo's partition."

The New York-based power management company Eaton has announced that it reached a definitive agreement to acquire an 82.28 percent controlling interest in Ulusoy Elektrik, a leading manufacturer of switchgear based in Ankara.

Two moderate quakes, measuring 4.5 and 3.8 on the Richter scale, struck in the southern eastern Aegean shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

The tremors were mostly felt on the island of Karpathos and Rhodes.

Kosovo assembly speaker Kadri Veseli on Friday said the teaching union had agreed to call off a three-week strike over pay, after hearing that teachers' wages would go up under the draft law on salaries, which parliament was due to adopt on Saturday.