Leyen

Today, the center-right European People's Party (EPP) has shown strong support for Ursula von der Leyen to extend her tenure as the President of the European Commission for an additional five-year term.

Hungary has sent an official message to Bulgaria that if the country does not remove the fee for the transfer of Russian gas, Budapest will impose a veto on Bulgaria's accession to Schengen. This was explained by Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov in response to a question about the reason for the decision of the Bulgarian authorities to postpone the fee.

Day 620 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

Day 440 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Layen, stated that she does not support the idea of a boycott of the G20 summit if Russian leader Vladimir Putin participates in it.

"We agree that the future of the Western Balkans is in the European Union, and we want to make progress on that issue," von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.
The president of the EC says that the Slovenian presidency will play an important role in the work on the recovery and resilience of the EU after the pandemic and the heavy blow inflicted on the EU economy.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will pay a one-day visit on Jan. 18 to hold talks on Turkey-EU relations days before Ankara and Brussels are set to engage in an intense dialogue to re-energize ties and discuss the renewal of a 2016 migrant deal.

It is easy to take exception to the "infelicitous semantic choice" of ditsy new job titles that "reflect a sense of detachment from European realities", as one EU law professor put it to The Guardian.

Author Laszlo Szocs pointed out that this portfolio affects two areas, Ukraine and Serbia, where important ethnic Hungarian communities live. The editorial also quoted several critical statements from the opposition - that it then refuted.

The relocation to Jordan of German troops stationed at the İncirlik air base in southern Turkey will start by the end of this month, Germany's defense minister has said.