Nicolae Ciuca

BUCHAREST - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic met with several European officials on the sidelines of a European People's Party (EPP) congress in Bucharest on Thursday.

After a meeting with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Brnabic briefly met with Jens Spahn, an MP of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who is also a former German federal minister of health.

BUCHAREST - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic met with Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Bucharest on Thursday, the second day of a European People's Party congress in the Romanian capital.

Brnabic and Mitsotakis reconfirmed the good relations and cooperation between their countries and discussed future cooperation in several areas.

Manfred Weber, the chairman of the European People's Party (EPP), emphasized the urgency of Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen Area, urging Austrian parties to support the move.

Romania is set to witness a unique electoral scenario this year as the local elections will coincide with the European elections on June 9, with presidential elections moved to September and parliamentary elections slated for December 8.

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca has resigned.

He announced this himself minutes ago at a press conference at the Council of Ministers on Victoria Square in Bucharest, BTA reported.

"The staff deficit [because of the employment freeze] poses a huge problem. We cannot cover the extra hours," one of the protesters told the G4Media.ro news website.

Romanian healthcare workers are protest in front of the government bundling in Bucharest. Photo: Health Solidarity Federation Romania/Facebook 

Romania's liberal Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca on Friday said he will remain the head of government until the government solves the school strike. "I decided not to submit my [governing] mandate," Ciuca said, without taking questions from the press.

More than 150,000 teachers in Romania went on a strike on Monday demanding higher salaries as the governing coalition parties prepare to replace Nicolae Ciuca, from the National Liberal Party, PNL, as Prime Minister with Marcel Ciolacu, leader of the Social Democratic Party, PSD.

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said he expects Romania - after more than a decade of waiting - to enter the EU's Schengen area before the end of the year. This will eliminate the long wait at Romania's borders with other EU countries and increase its attractiveness for foreign investors.

Romania's Energy Minister, Virgil Popescu, on Wednesday said Romania will produce more natural gas than it needs once it starts extracting gas from the Black Sea area - and will then be in a position to export to countries in the region, with Moldova a priority.