Berlin

By Maria Katsounaki

On May 1, center stage was not taken by politics but by culture, as more than 650 million viewers around the world tuned into the annual European Concert of the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and featuring Greece?s Leonidas Kavakos on the violin, from the Athens Concert Hall.

German President Joachim Gauck expressed support on Friday for Athens's demands for reparations for the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War Two, even though the government in Berlin has repeatedly rejected the claims.

BERLIN - A further normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina will be achieved through the formation of a community of Serb municipalities (ZSO), director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric said in Berlin on Thursday.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday revealed that the German intelligence agency helped the NSA monitor the French presidential palace and foreign ministry officials as well as members of the European Commission.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said April 30 he expected Berlin to get to the bottom of a Brussels spy scandal after Germany reportedly snooped on the EU and France at Washington's behest.

PM "doesn't know what to expect" from platform

BELGRADE -- Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday said he "does not what he can expect" from President Tomislav Nikolic's announced Kosovo platform.

Nikolic said this week that he would send a draft of the platform to Vucic and the government after the upcoming May 1 Labor Day holiday.

BELGRADE - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier came to Belgrade with the positive message that Berlin is an advocate of further EU enlargement, says the president of the NGO Centre for Foreign Policy Aleksandra Joksimovic.

BELGRADE - President Tomislav Nikolic said he is not very optimistic after his talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as he did not hear from him that the chapters in the negotiations with the EU will be opened this year.

World-renowned German singer and actress Ute Lemper enchanted her fans in Istanbul on April 28 as part of her concert tour "Last tango in Berlin," which is promoting her latest album, "Paris days, Berlin nights."

France and Germany have demanded that Bulgaria's General Labor Inspectorate apply tighter control on Bulgarian employees sent on business trips by their companies, a minister has warned.