Member states of the European Union

Novinite.com is interviewing ambassadors of Bulgaria's main trading partners as well as neighbouring countries. Here is the interview with Anick Van Calster, Belgium's Ambassador to Bulgaria.

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Greek toy and home-ware retailer Jumbo saw sales in the July 2013-June 2014 period grow by 7.9 percent from 502.2 million euros to 541.9 million euros, the company has said in a report.

Gross profits grew by 53.12 percent in July 2013-June 2014 from 52.33 percent the previous financial year.

Some 8 thousand young people up to 29 years will be employed by Bulgarian businesses with money from the state by the end of the year under the youth employment program.

Border authorities of Romania, Hungary and Moldova are taking part in a cooperation project designed to fight against illegal immigration, Romania's General Border Police Directorate (IGPF) reports in a press release issued on Wednesday.

Some 45% of Bulgarian pensioners continue to work, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat has claimed.

In 2012, the year for which latest EU labor market statistics were available, about 15% of all employed Bulgarian pensioners continued working mainly for financial reasons, while less than 10% did so mainly for non-financial reasons such as job satisfaction.

Minister of Public Finances, Ioana Petrescu, and Deputy Prime Minister Daniel Constantin, also Minister of Agriculture, on Wednesday are set to present in a press conference the conclusions of the ex-post evaluation of the macro-economic effects generated by the VAT cut for bread and other bakery products.

Romania and Slovakia agreed to cooperate in the next period to develop the Danube infrastructure, so that the river will become an important waterway in the future for the European traders, Mihai Daraban, head of Romania's Chamber of Commerce and Industry stated on Wednesday.

A draft line-up of the new European Commission, obtained by Reuters, shows that Bulgaria's Kristalina Georgieva would most likely be taxation and anti-fraud commissioner. 

The final line-up of Jean-Claude Juncker's 28-strong team is expected to be announced on Wednesday at noon, so the draft is subject to change.

Bulgaria continues to be at the bottom at the EU ranking by research & development expenditure, registering R&D spending of 0.26% of GDP in 2013, compared to an EU average of 0.7% of GDP.

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A seasonal rise in industrial activity helped Romania's economy to grow by an annual 2.4 per cent in the first six months of the year, according to data released on Wednesday by the Statistics Institute, INS.