Latvia

Bulgaria and Romania had the weakest road safety records among EU member states last year, according to official statistics of the bloc.

While all the EU member states have improved their road safety records since 2010, there was still a significant gap in their performance, the European Commission said in a statement on Thursday.

Gibraltar is not anymore on Bulgaria's "tax haven list", the European Commission website shows.

Local daily Gibraltar Chronicle points to the development as a result of "intensive lobbying" by Gibraltar's Finance Minister Albert Isola and the Gibraltar Finance Bulgaria team.

The latest City Costs Barometer from Post Office Travel Money was released showing the most affordable cities to travel in Europe for a weekend getaway.

Three states in Southeast Europe have been named as the most corrupt countries in the 28-nation bloc, according to a European Parliament study done by RAND Europe and several other organizations and researchers.

Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia top a list where Eastern European countries are all above EU average levels in terms of corruption.

The number of teenagers trying alcohol or cigarettes before they turn 14 has dropped, especially among girls, according to a World Health Organization study of 42 well-off nations.    

Pressure is mounting on the Greek government and most importantly on Greek society due to the refugee crisis, as neighbouring countries are taking tougher measures to safeguard their borders from the flow of thousands of people wanting to reach the north of Europe.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania set new stricter border controls raising also fences to prevent immigrants from entering the country, since they worry that Baltic region will become the new entry point in Europe for refugees, while Western Balkans route remains closed.

The European Commission has requested Bulgaria and six other EU member states to transpose the 2012 directive for establishing a single European railway area.

In a decisive encounter from Group I Europe/Africa of the Fed Cup on Friday, Bulgaria lost its two singles matches against Belgium.

Thus Bulgaria missed the opportunity to qualify for the play-off and compete for promotion to an upper group.

The highest ranking Bulgarian female tennis player Tsvetana Pironkova was defeated by Alison van Uytvanck with 2:6, 4:6.

Bulgaria defeated Hungary and Latvia in its matches from Europe/Africa zone Group 1 of the Fed Cup.

On Wednesday, Bulgaria won against Hungary with 2:1, while on Thursday it defeated Latvia with the same score.

Bulgaria is represented by its highest ranking female tennis player Tsvetana Pironkova, Elitsa Kostova, Isabella Shinikova and Dia Evtimova.