European Council

The resulting public confusion would have guaranteed Duda victory in the first round. But the election did not take place on May 10, owing to a revolt by Agreement, a small party whose leader, Jarosław Gowin, had hitherto been loyal to Kaczyński.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has sent letters to top EU officials protesting over Turkey's activities in the Eastern Mediterranean and the publication in the Turkish government's gazette of a map outlining areas of the Greek continental shelf where Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has applied for exploration permits.

President Klaus Iohannis has stated at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace on Wednesday that Romania is preparing to draw "substantial European funds," referring to a proposal of the European Commission. He said that the proposal is that the Multiannual Funds be discussed "together" with the funds devoted to economic recovery.

The European Commission has recommended Romania to pursue fiscal policies in line with the Council's recommendation of 3 April 2020 that Romania should put an end to the present excessive deficit situation by 2022 at the latest, according to the recommendations in the European Semester Spring package released on Wednesday.

The European Council on Tuesday adopted the support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency scheme, known by the acronym SURE, which provided up to 100 billion euros' worth of loans on favorable terms to EU member-states.

Romania has failed in the 30 years since the fall of communism to be in the engine of the European Union, Romania's former Prime Minister Petre Roman, also a former foreign minister, told AGERPRES on Friday, adding that his confidence in the European design "remains one hundred percent." On the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, Roman said that the question is whether the battle again

European unity will be visible especially in the recovery plans following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a health crisis that has brought to discussion the idea of democracy, as well as the idea of leadership, analyst Iulian Chifu told AGERPRES on Friday. He spoke about the prospects that the health crisis has brought to the European Union ahead Europe Day on Saturday.

A significant portion of the required financing for the relaunch of the real economy could, and actually should, come from capital markets. The Covid-19 pandemic may prove to be a reason to accelerate taking better advantage of existing capital markets instruments as well as designing new ones.

Heads of State or Government of the EU and the Western Balkans will hold a video meeting to discuss the spread of Covid-19 and misinformation. The meeting is not set to set a date for the start of accession talks with Northern Macedonia and Albania, as it was originally intended, if the meeting had taken place in Zagreb.

The virtual summit, organized by the EU Presidency of Croatia and chaired by European Council President Charles Michel, will be held from 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm.