Chisinau

Moldova is hosting the summit of the European Political Community, EPC, which will be attended on Thursday by 50 European heads of state and government and other high-ranking European officials.

A smaller group of Serbs remained on the watch in front of the municipalities.
Members of KFOR are still in front of the municipalities, while members of special forces are present within the local self-governments.
The mayor of Leposavic has been sleeping within the municipality for three nights.

European leaders meet Thursday at a summit held on one of the most vulnerable points on the continent's strategic frontline, in a show of diplomatic force designed to pressure Moscow.

The European Political Community (EPC), which groups 27 EU members with 40 of their allies and excludes Russia and Belarus, chose Ukraine's tiny neighbour Moldova for its second summit.

The Chisinau Court of Appeal ruled in a decision issued on Monday evening that fugitive Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc must stand trial in his absence in the 'Grand Theft' case of $1 billion from the Moldovan banking system between 2012 and 2014.

Moldova has started the process of rebranding Victory Day amid protests on Thursday in front of the parliament building in the capital Chisinau.

Several dozen people protested in front of the parliament with Soviet-era and Russian flags after the pro-European governing party, Action and Solidarity, PAS, put a draft bill on parliament's agenda.

The new governor of the pro-Russian autonomous region of Gagauzia, Evghenia Gutul, publicly thanked her supporters on Tuesday after the Court of Appeal in the region's main city Comrat decided the previous evening to validate the results of the May 14 elections for the position of bashkan (governor).

Tens of thousands of Moldovans rallied on Sunday to demand European Union membership for their country, whose bid to join the bloc has been accelerated by the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

The former Soviet republic of 2.6 million people applied last year to join the EU and in June 2022 became a candidate country, alongside Ukraine.

Officers of Moldova's National Anticorruption Centre, CNA, on Tuesday evening raided the offices of the Central Electoral Commission in Gagauzia, collecting lists of voters for the election of a new governor held in the autonomous southern region.

The CNA said it found names in the lists of some citizens settled outside the country and of some dead people.

Local elections in Moldova's pro-Russian autonomous region of Gagauzia were won on Sunday by the Ilan Shor Party's candidate, Evghenia Gutul, according to results published by the Electoral Commission in Comrat, the central administrative city in the region.

The co-chairs of the Joint Interministerial Committee for Economic, Technological and Scientific Cooperation between Greece and Moldova, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Kostas Fragogiannis and Deputy Minister for Development and Digitalization of Moldova Vadim Gumene reaffirmed both countries' strong volition to strengthen economic and trade relations between Greece and Moldova and the next steps