European Parliament

MEPs are to convene Tuesday for the first session of the new European Parliament in Strasbourg.

They will have to decide on the Parliament's leadership and also to set up different Committees, with the latter activity to continue at the next sitting on Wednesday.

The National Liberal Party, PNL, Romania’s biggest opposition party, elected Klaus Iohannis as its new president on Saturday.

Iohannis, 55, an ethnic German and popular mayor of Transylvanian city of Sibiu, has replaced former parliament speaker Crin Antonescu, and has promised to revive the party’s popularity.

Bulgaria is to hold early elections on October 5 and is to have a caretaker government after President dissolves Parliament in August, the county's head of state announced.

After political consultations at the Presidency attended by most of the major parties, it was decided that no other government would be sought within the current legislature.

The leader of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, Sergey Stanishev stated that the most important task now is to stabilize the banking system and regain the public trust.

Socialist leader Sergey Stanishev's responsibilities in the European Parliament are vital for both Bulgaria and the EU, the new head of the BSP's parliament group argued.

President (2002-2011) Georgi Parvanov has called for constitutional changes to introduce the presidential system in Bulgaria.

Parvanov, who has already served the maximum of two terms in office, told at the conference marking the foundation of his ABV party on Saturday that he was even willing to encourage a citizens' initiative boosting presidential powers, Dnevnik.bg reported.

Bulgaria has observed just 16% of economic recommendations issued by the EU Commission, a European Parliament survey reveals.

The data cited by EurActiv shows the country is close to the European average, which is 18% and which shows member states largely ignore the EU Commission's proposals for reform.

Former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker has received support from a majority of EU leaders to become the next EU Commission President.

Apart from the UK, Hungary was the only other country out of the 28 EU members to vote against Juncker, EUObserver reports.

Bulgarian President (2002-2011) Georgi Parvanov is due to found the Alternative for Bulgarian Revival (ABV) party on his birthday on Saturday.

ABV has grown out of his movement with the same name, which Parvanov, also a former socialist party (BSP) leader, has headed for years and which surprisingly chose to run at European Parliament elections separately from BSP this year.

Socialist leader Sergey Stanishev has been authorized to conduct talks on the future EU Commission's policies on behalf of the Party of European Socialists (PES).

Stanishev, who is also the President of PES, renounced his seat as Bulgarian lawmaker earlier this week in order to become MEP. Parliament approved his resignation Friday.