Government of Germany

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Robert Golob will travel to Brussels next week to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel, his office told the STA on Tuesday. This will be his first visit to EU institutions following his government taking office last Wednesday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will embark on a two-day trip to the Western Balkans, Greece and Bulgaria next week.

The first stops scheduled for June 10th are Kosovo and Serbia.

"Making Ukraine's EU membership possible is a moral duty", said the head of the European Commission.

In a speech at the GLOBSEC 2022 forum in Bratislava, Ursula von der Leyen said that "it is not only our strategic interest but also our moral duty to make it possible" for Ukrainians to join the EU, aware of their courageous struggle for their future.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will announce today in Warsaw the approval of Poland's Recovery and Sustainability Plan.

Poland receives nearly 24 billion euros in grants and 11.5 billion euros in loans.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his intention to speak by phone today with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.
President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the front line in the Kharkiv region for the first time since the beginning of the war.

Leyen: I do not expect an agreement on sanctions in the next 48 hours

The European Commission is proposing a ban on imports of all Russian oil. The ban is part of the EU's sixth package of sanctions, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented today at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The European Union's leader on Wednesday called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia in a sixth package of sanctions targeting Moscow for its war in Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also proposed that Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, and two other major banks be disconnected from the SWIFT international banking payment system.

Germany summoned Turkey's ambassador in Berlin on April 29 to protest a sentence of life in prison that a Turkish court handed to businessman Osman Kavala. 

US President Joe Biden has asked Congress for $33 billion in support of Ukraine. NATO is determined to help Ukraine, even if the war lasts for years. Earlier, the Kremlin warned that arming Ukraine posed a risk to European security and promised a firm military response to attacks on Russian territory.

"Bulgaria is able to replace all gas supplies from Russia", Deputy Prime Minister Asen Vassilev told reporters in Brussels.

He visited the European Commission together with the Minister of Energy Alexander Nikolov. The visit was due to Gazprom's decision to suspend gas for Bulgaria.