Cyprus

By Tassos Telloglou

The new airport at Kastelli in Iraklio, Crete, will be ready in four years’ time and will thankfully manage to dodge the high charges seen at Athens International Airport due to its concession agreement, which have resulted in reduced traffic.

Some 253 thousand Bulgarians are unemployed, and are not actively seeking for a job, according to Eurostat latest data on potential additional labor force in the EU.

President Nicos Anastasiades said discovery of natural gas around Cyprus could galvanize international efforts to resolve a longstanding division of the island and smooth development of an alternative energy supply source to Russia.

But he said it was too early to speak of tangible progress in recently relaunched peace talks on the ethnically split island.

A new sewage plant was opened in Cypriot capital Nicosia by the mayors of northern and southern part of the city as a joint initiative of the city's Greek and Turkish population.

The high-tech plant costs EUR 29 M, with a third of the money provided by the European Union, BusinessWeek reported.

Greece's largest toy seller Jumbo reported a 7.6 percent rise in sales for the nine months to March on Wednesday thanks to double-digit growth in Cyprus and Bulgaria.

The figure is higher than the company's outlook for an increase in sales of between four and six percent in the 12 months to June 2014.

EU supporting water treatment effort in Cyprus

The boss of a Bitcoin company in Cyprus has fled abroad days after it suddenly stopped operations, in a blow to the virtual currency’s once-vaunted prospects on the island.

Privately owned television channel Sigma TV said late on Thursday that it had repeatedly tried to contact Neo & Bee CEO Danny Brewster, but to no avail.

Bulgaria is last but one in the EU by government expenditure on education as a share of the GDP, according to Eurostat data for 2012.

By Vangelis Mandravelis

The telecommunications market in Greece is abuzz with developments as judgment day looms for some of the industry’s main players. This mainly concerns companies currently operating on a razor’s edge such as Hellas Online (HOL) and Cyta Hellas.

Cypriot lawmakers must make it easier for banks to seize property when borrowers default to tackle the issue of bad loans, the country’s most pressing issue, central bank governor Panicos Demetriades said.