Foreign relations

Turkey is set to sharply cut its imports of substances that damage the Ozone layer, due to the United Nations' Montreal Protocol, the Environment Ministry has announced.

Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova and Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov agreed to simplify tourist visa procedures for citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Georgia.

The measure is aimed at boosting visitor numbers from traditional markets such as Russia and Ukraine, according to the press office of Bulgaria's Tourism Ministry.

A National Mine Working Center will be established for the cleansing of landmines and unexploded ordnance within Turkish territory, according to a new law that has been approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

On Sept. 24, 2012, Turkey allowed its citizens to file individual applications at the Constitutional Court, creating another path to exhaust domestic remedies before applications to the ECHR. As a result, the drop in applications against Ankara at the ECHR appears to be more due to the new, longer domestic process, than it is to improvements in Turkey?s human rights situation. 

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu warns about the danger of prolonging and expanding of the conflict situation in Ukraine. Speaking in the extraordinary meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU in Brussels on Thursday, he called for 'sincere political will for a negotiated solution.'

Photo credit: (c) SIMION MECHNO / AGERPRES FLOW

Bulgaria's Environment Minister Ivelina Vasileva announced on Wednesday that BGN 13 M will be added to the national budget in 2015 from payments received by the National Trust Eco Fund.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) elected Yonko Grozev as a judge to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in respect of Bulgaria on Tuesday.

Grozev was elected with an absolute majority for a non-renewable term of nine years, winning 108 out of the 202 votes that were cast in total.

In December 2014 Bulgarians traveled more than 267 000 times abroad, which is an increase of 12.4 % compared to the same month in 2013.

STRASBOURG - The decision on participation of a judge from Serbia in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will be adopted at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Tuesday, head of the standing delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandra Djordjevic said and noted that one of the most important matters for Serbia would be th

BEOGRAD - According to the latest climate change mitigation research, Serbia ranks as 73rd among the 192 parties to the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change, Serbian Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Snezana Bogosavljevic-Boskovic said Monday, chairing the first meeting of the National Council on Climate Change.