European Council

Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini was appointed on Saturday as the European Union’s new foreign policy chief.

European leaders also chose Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as the new President of the European Council, the current President Herman Van Rompuy announced in tweets at the EU summit in Brussels.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on Saturday afternoon to decide who will be the next President of the European Council and EU’s foreign policy chief.

Romanian President Traian Basescu said on Saturday he would argue, when attending the European Council later in the day, for the European Union and NATO to make Ukraine available military hardware, lest its army become "cannon fodder".

President Traian Basescu said on Friday that he would voice in the European Council, on Saturday, supporting Ukraine with military equipment so that this country may meet the aggression from the Russian Federation, as well as imposing a new round of sanctions on Russia.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been engaged in a flurry of diplomacy, Kathimerini understands, ahead of a crucial European Union leaders summit in Brussels Saturday as well as next week’s talks in Paris between Greek government officials and troika representatives.

President Traian Basescu on Thursday at the Cotroceni Palace welcomed Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on which occasion both the two dignitaries deemed the situation in eastern Ukraine as being 'extremely concerning'.

President Traian Basescu told new Minister-delegate for Budget Darius Valcov on Thursday that he was taking up a difficult portfolio and urged him to be a minister of the Romanian budget, not electoral interests.

"Carry out your activity by submitting to the law", Basescu told Valcov, adding he can consult him any time he wishes.

A proposal for special European Union funding worth 3.7 million euros for the Ionian island of Cephalonia following a 5.8 Richter scale earthquake and a series of aftershocks in early 2014 was announced on Wednesday.

Sergei Stanishev has said he’ll back Kristalina Georgieva for the post of EU foreign policy chief if EU leaders decided to give the position to the European People’s Party.