Government

The U.S. government is currently working with partners from around the world, Romania included, to ensure access to government information through the Open Government Partnership, U.S. Charge d'affaires a.i. Dean Thompson on Friday told the Open Data Day Conference organized by the government of Romania together with the Open Data Coalition, under the aegis of the American partnership.

A crucial Eurogroup session will begin with a 90-minute delay due to a previously unscheduled meeting of Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Yanis Varoufakis, Christine Lagarde and Wolfgang Schaeuble. Therefore, the regular Eurogroup itself will start at 15:30 GMT.

The delay was announced by Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem through his Twitter account.

The Germany chancellery has expressed an opinion that the Greek government’s tabled proposal for a six-month extension of the loan agreement is a “great basis for further negotiations”.

German Chancellery spokesperson Steffen Seibert said Greece is interested in receiving help from the EU.

The German government appeared to open the door to a last-minute deal between Athens and its creditors, saying Friday that Greece's request for a loan extension from its eurozone partners provided "a starting point" for more talks.        

Finance Minister of the Britain, George Osborne sees the debt crisis in Greece leading to a generalized problem for the Eurozone. The Minister’s statements come just a few hours prior to the crucial Eurogroup meeting. He also reiterated that the Eurozone needs to find a commonly acceptable solution, while the UK should continue its monetary policy which has “kept it safe”.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, speaking with italian national braodcaster Rai Due, said: “We are trying to offer a helping hand to the Greek government in cooperation with the European Commission in order a solution to be found.” He also expressed a willingness to act as a bridge between “Greece and the most rigid countries.”

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) parliamentary groups will decide on Monday on the President's proposal for the designation of Eduard Hellvig as Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) head, PSD Chairman, Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced on Friday.

Photo credit: (c) Liviu SOVA / AGERPRES PHOTO

The European Commission is stepping up its assistance to Italy to deal with the current high migratory pressures in Lampedusa. A number of important measures have been pledged.

BELGRADE - The joint session of the governments of Serbia and Slovenia will be held in Ljubljana on Friday, the Serbian government's Office for cooperation with the media released.

After the session, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will confer with Slovenian President Borut Pahor.

Zaganjori told reporters that during 2014, the Supreme Court had managed to hear all the cases registered between 2007 and 2011.

"The civil-administrative panel is now reviewing cases registered in 2012 and the criminal panel, those registered in 2013," he explained.