Slovakia

Twelve European countries objected in a letter to the European Commission against the concessions it made to Bulgaria and four other EU members for the import of Ukrainian food.

The departed but mostly unlamented coalition government, the first version of which was pieced together in February 2020 by four parties in a push to unseat Fico's Smer party following eight years of increasing authoritarianism and corruption, certainly wasn't helped by circumstances.

Bulgaria will have to comply with the Istanbul Convention, even if it has not ratified it, if it is approved by the EU Council, according to the European Commission.

The European Parliament is expected to approve its ratification at its plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Bulgarian grain producers will receive additional aid from the European Commission in the amount of 9.77 million euros.

This was reported by Bulgarian media ClubZ.

The money is compensation for the damages suffered due to the import of Ukrainian grain.

The money is from the second aid package, amounting to a total of 100 million euros.

The Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, announced that an agreement had been reached with Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia on the import of certain Ukrainian foods, which the five member countries had vetoed.

The voting process to decide the next Turkish president and the parliamentary seats began for around 3.4 million Turks living abroad on April 27.

Turkish citizens can cast their votes without needing to book an appointment until May 9 at designated election bureaus and May 14 at border gates on 156 points across 73 countries, the Supreme Election Council (YSK) said.

It may read like a cheap thriller, but for the outside world these events helped support then-US secretary of state Madeleine Albright's claim that Slovakia had become a "black hole in the heart of Europe" under Meciar.

On the initiative of Bulgaria, a contract was signed today in Sofia between the operator of the gas transmission system "Bulgartransgaz", as well as the relevant companies in Romania ("Transgaz"), Hungary (FGSZ), Slovakia ("Eustream"), as well as the state oil company of the Republic Azerbaijan ("SOCAR")

Azerbaijan plans to double natural gas supplies to Europe by 2027, said the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in Sofia. He is a special guest at the signing ceremony of a memorandum on the Solidarity Ring initiative, which aims to increase the security of natural gas supplies to the European Union. The event is hosted by President Rumen Radev.

European Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova gives a press conference on the Media Freedom Act at the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium, 16 September 2022. EPA-EFE/STEPHANIE LECOCQ