Jean-Claude Juncker

Sibiu, a former European Capital of Culture in 2007, lived on Thursday the day when it turned into the political capital of the European Union, hosting a summit of the most important leaders of the continent, a moment that will go down in the history of a city that was more prepared than ever before, aware that it will write history.

Top European officials on Thursday expressed their support for Cyprus in a dispute with Turkey, which has threatened to start drilling in the island's exclusive economic zone, as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appealed to Ankara for dialogue on the issue for the first time.

By George Gilson

European Council President Donald Tusk has said that the EU is in Cyprus' corner as regards Turkey's violation of the Republic of Cyprus' sovereign right to drill in its own EEZ.

European Council President Donald Tusk said in Sibiu on Thursday that he wants to nominate the new EU leadership in June, having announced that, in this respect, he would convene a meeting with the EU leaders on 28 May, right after the elections to the European Parliament.

The Sibiu Summit showed unity not just for show, but a solid unity, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a joint press conference held with European Council President Donald Tusk and President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday. He confessed that he wanted to make the participants in the informal summit of heads of state and government to fall in love with Sibiu.

President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday, at the end of the informal Summit in Sibiu, hailed the fact that Romania is sending a positive, unitary message of the member states to strengthen the EU based on a clear set of principles and values.

European Council President Donald Tusk stated on Thursday in Sibiu that he fell in love with this city which hosted the informal summit of the EU heads of state and government. "I simply fell in love with Sibiu," Tusk stated in Romanian, at the joint press conference held with President Kalus Iohannis and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

President Klaus Iohannis carried out on Thursday a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, on the sidelines of the informal summit of the heads of state and government.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday he wanted a summit of EU leaders in central Sibiu because he wanted to show leaders that the Union is not just Brussels. Ever since September 2007, I wanted to have the European Council in Sibiu, because I wanted to show that the European Union is not just Brussels (...).

The informal EU Summit in Sibiu will remain a remarkable moment in the history of the European project, President Klaus Iohannis stated on Wednesday, at a debate where the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, was also present.