Juncker

According to Professor Stefan Surli, citizens don't believe their countries will ever become EU members because they think there are hidden conditions that cannot be fulfilled. For Serbia, that condition is the normalization of relations with Pristina, and the dialogue is, as he says, clinically dead at the moment.

The European Investment Bank - and by extension the European Union budget - is among the biggest losers from the streamlining plan for troubled cold cuts producer Creta Farms.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker congratulated Kyriakos Mitsotakis on his victory in Sunday's Greek general election while cautioning that the highly indebted country still had a tough economic task ahead.

Senate President Calin-Popescu Tariceanu told AGERPRES in an interview that a fair representation of Romania in the European Union is needed and that the party he is heading wants equal rights for all Union citizens, regardless of their origin country. "We don't criticize the Union, but the lack of democracy and the exaggerated influence of the bureaucracy from Brussels.

President Klaus Iohannis wants the European leaders on Thursday, at an informal European summit in Sibiu, to show that they know what they want of the European Union and to send an optimistic message to show that EU citizens will enjoy both welfare and security. "Our message is very clear: it is the message that I have repeated many times.

Juncker - who showed up for a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday wearing a bandaid across his cheek, apparently a shaving accident - warned that, otherwise, there is a risk of "a return to the 1990s."

AGERPRES special correspondent Tudor Martalogu reports: The EU executive remains committed to the objective of lifting the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for Romania by the end of the current European Commission's term, but if Bucharest has the ambition to do the same thing, there is a long way to go, and there are many steps to be taken, First Vice-President Frans Timmerm

UPDATED 22:10

Bucharest, Jan 10 /Agerpres/ - The parliamentary majority will support the Government in all its actions to fulfill with honesty and dignity the mandate at the presidency of the Council of the European Union, Florin Iordache, Deputy-Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, said.

The European Commission does not feel any nostalgia for the way the Greek government handled its negotiations with its creditors in the first half of 2015, spokesman Margaritis Schinas said on Thursday, asked to comment on the three-year anniversary from the referendum called by the governing coalition in Greece and the political controversy over post-bailout surveillance.

I want to highlight the urgency in solving this matter, Juncker told a special session of the Greek parliament on Thursday, which he attended after a meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

He also said that two Greek soldiers detained in Turkey in March must be released, Reuters is reporting.