Slovakia

The European Commission’s plan for a fair distribution of refugees across EU countries has so far proven a complete failure, according to data released. The ambitious EC plan hammered out in 2015 to relocate 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece to the rest of the European countries has effectively not even taken off.

(Update 3-23:30)

In last minute developments Hungary has vetoed the draft plan, according to a tweet posted by the country’s PM Viktor Orban.

The social-democratic party of incumbent Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico won the general elections held in the country on Saturday, but lost its parliamentary majority.

According to preliminary results based on almost all of the votes counted, Fico's Smer-Social Democracy party won the elections with 28.3 % of the ballots, which translates to 49 seats in the 150-member parliament.

Slovakia's leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico said March 6 that he would begin difficult coalition talks after he won elections on an anti-refugee platform but lost his parliamentary majority as smaller parties, including the extreme right, scored first-time seats.

Slovaks are voting for a new Parliament on Saturday, with social-democrat Robert Fico widely expected to remain in office as Prime Minister.

Some 4.4 million people are eligible to cast a ballot.

Many opinion polls have suggested the incumbent's Smer SD party is tipped to win, possibly garnering up to 38.4 percent of the vote, but also losing its majority in Parliament.

 A record number of 1 255 600 first-time asylum seekers applied for international protection in member states of the EU last year, which is more than double increase compared to 2014.

This is revealed by the latest figures of Eurostat released on Friday,

The number of Syrians applying for asylum reached 362 800, which is a double increase compared to the previous year.

It was only a minor tweak in the spelling but a historic change when a Ukrainian village on March 2 renamed a street, which  honoured Soviet founder Lenin, after The Beatles' John Lennon.

Greece’s place in Europe and the management of the refugee crisis should not be used for domestic political confrontations, foreign ministry spokesman Konstantinos Koutras told journalists on Tuesday responding to a question on the critical comments made against Greece by the leaders of Slovakia’s political parties during a TV debate.

Borovets, in Bulgaria's Rila Mountain, is the ski resort with the most bars per square kilometer, a survey by tour operator Crystal Ski, cited by The Telegraph, shows.

NATO should "have a land operation" along the Bulgaria-Turkey and the Greece-Turkey borders if its recently launched mission in the Aegean proves successful, Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said on Tuesday.