Germany

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held "friendly and constructive" debt talks with the leaders of France and Germany May 21, but gave no sign of a breakthrough ahead of a crucial June deadline.
 

AGERPRES special correspondent Oana Ghita reports: Voltaj, the pop-rock band that represents Romania at the Eurovision contest, will be the 20th to perform in Saturday's Grand Final, following the organizers' decision on the order of the competing performances in the 2015 edition of the European Song Contest.

On the second day of a European Union leaders' summit in Riga, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday for talks on the progress of negotiations between Greece and its creditors and its prospects.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement upon her arrival on the second day of the European Council in Riga, Latvia, on Friday made it clear that there was no significant breakthrough during her meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday.

Ahead of a meeting late on Thursday between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of an EU leaders? summit in Riga, the Brussels Group continued its negotiations.

The Macedonian government plane carrying Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to Skopje from Strasbourg has made an emergency landing in Zurich over an unspecified malfunction, MIA news agency reported on Thursday.

The prime minister and the other passengers on board are safe, MIA quoted government spokesman Aleksandar Gjorgiev as saying.

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to meet German and French leaders in Riga this week to try to win consent for a joint statement that could give him more leeway in talks with international lenders and give a breath of air to his cash-strapepd government.

Germany’s Handelsblatt proclaimed “Varoufexit” on Thursday, a day after a NYTimes feature article on increasingly controversial Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis wrote that the latter taped portions of the Riga Eurogroup session.

Romanian Horia Tecau and Dutch Jean-Julien Rojer, the main favourites, on Thursday advanced as a double to the men's doubles event final of the 494,310-US-dollar Nice Open 2015 tennis tournament, after defeating Argentinean double Guillermo Duran/Maximo Gonzales 6-3, 7-5 in one hour and 12 minutes of play.

Photo credit: (c) Grigore POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

French football legend Zinedine Zidane will also attend the final of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship, which will take place in the Bulgarian city of Burgas on Friday.

This was officially confirmed by the director of the tournament Pavel Kolev, who clarified that Zidane will be visiting Bulgaria not in his capacity as an official, but as a father.