France

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuoğlu has dismissed French President Emmanuel Macron's critique of Turkey's cross-border operation in Syria against YPG, the Syrian branch of the PKK, saying the French leader "sponsors terrorism."

The voting abroad in the presidential election runoff ended with the closing of the last polling stations on the West Coast of the United States of America and Canada, at 21:00hrs, local (7:00hrs Romania's time).

On the sidelines of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the German Chancellor was in sharp private criticism of a colleague, according to the "New York Times".

Fresh Thinking

North Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski cuts a very different figure from Gjorgje Ivanov, his predecessor. Ivanov was often jokingly referred to as a 'ficus', or house plant, due to his passivity. The same cannot be said of Pendarovski.

Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu held a bilateral meeting with the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian at the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

Kosovo film-maker Blerta Zeqiri, known for her work inspired by issues like missing persons and LGBT rights, was honoured with France's top cultural award, the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.

The French ambassador to Kosovo, Marie-Christine Butel, gave Blerta Zeqiri the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters award at a ceremony in the French embassy in Pristina on Tuesday.

Over 14,000 people visited Romanian Tourism Fair, the autumn edition, between 14 and 17 November, where a number of 236 companies from 17 countries presented their offer, the organisers have announced on Wednesday.

"The story follows the life of young Dimitri returning as refugee to Kosovo shortly before the anti-Serb riots in 2004. This romanticized drama is made up of real events and will show French audiences the recent history of the Balkans from another, less biased angle", Arnaud Gouillon wrote.

In October 2019, the EU passenger car market grew by 8.7% to reach 1,177,746 units registered. This marked the highest October total on record since 2009. During the same month last year, registrations fell by 7.3% after the WLTP test came into effect, setting a low base of comparison for 2019.

The history of Greece's foreign policy is a litany of strategic successes and missed opportunities. The same applies to the foreign policy of the European Union. Our national failures stem from the toxic combination of populism and fear of political cost. The failures of the EU usually result from diverging national interests among member-states.