Economy of Europe

The European Central Bank has reportedly accepted a demand by the Bank of Greece to extend the period of emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) but has only added 3.3 billion euros to the limit of money Greek banks can draw from the costly mechanism.

Ryanair's Chief Commercial Officer David O'Brien announced on Tuesday the airline's plans to double passenger traffic through Macedonia airport by 2018.

At a press conference held on Tuesday, O'Brien said that the company's aim is to increase the number of passengers travelling through Thessaloniki airport by 500,000 per year for the next 3 years.

Russia might direct a new pipe to Bulgaria functioning as a ramification of its planned gas pipeline to Turkey, President Vladimir Putin has hinted.

Speaking at a press conference after his meeting with Hungarian officials on Tuesday, he added such a project might be carried out if it could rely on EU funding.

By Elisa Martinuzzi & Stefania Spezzati

Greek banks fell in Athens trading after talks among euro-area finance ministers on extending the nation?s bailout ended abruptly, raising concern lenders may need to introduce controls to avert capital flight.

By Yiannis Papadoyiannis

The European Central Bank (ECB) has issued a terse warning to Greek banks, and particularly to the government in Athens, via its Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), over plans to overhaul lenders? management. In a letter to Greek banks, the SSM stressed that any changes to their management can be implemented only after receiving the SSM?s approval.

The intention of investors to cash in on last week?s gains and concerns over a possible rift between Athens and its eurozone peers resulted in a losing start to the week for Greek stocks, with banks sustaining considerable losses.

The ?urozone area has shown a 0.3% GDP growth over the last quarter of 2014 as compared to the previous one, while the EU28 countries altogether performed even better with 0.4% increase according to a Eurostat report published on Friday.

Compared to results from the same period of 2013, the seasonally adjusted GDP of the eurozone rose by 0.9%, and by 1.3% in all EU28 countries.

Greece's economy contracted slightly in the last quarter of 2014 compared to the previous three-month period, a flash estimate by the European Union's statistics service Eurostat showed on Friday.

European stock-index futures rose, signaling equities will complete a second week of gains, on speculation the region?s leaders will reach a compromise with Greece on its bailout terms.

The European Central Bank increased the ELA's ceiling for Greek banks to more than 65 billion euros.

The decision is final and valid until Wednesday, when it will be reviewed.

The increase through ELA is associated with the estimated needs of Greek banks in the present.

European Central Bank board members held a teleconference earlier Thursday.