Organizations

Turkey will reopen universities on Oct. 1 with measures in place to counter the coronavirus, the country's higher education board head has said.

"We asked universities to plan their education calendar starting on Oct. 1," Yekta Saraç said, the head of the Higher Education Board (YÖK) wrote on Twitter.

Istanbul Airport on Aug. 11 became the first worldwide to receive a new health accreditation from the Airports Council International (ACI).

Sweden will lift its advice against non-essential travel to 10 European countries from June 30, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The countries are Greece, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, France, Iceland, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

The European Union unveiled plans Wednesday to fight unfair competition from foreign companies backed by powerful non-EU trade rivals amid China's growing influence in the bloc's single market.

Athens will host the ceremony for the UEFA Player of the Year Award in October, along with the draws for the European Cups' group stages for the 2020-2021 season, government spokesman Stelios Petsas announced on Wednesday.

Only 18 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) will reserve the right to enter reception and identification centers (RICs) as well as accommodation facilities for migrants and refugees in Greece, the Migration and Asylum Ministry said on Wednesday.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's foreign policy chief, has expressed the bloc's concern over the escalation of tension in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Asked during a press conference after the EU's foreign affairs council on Monday over Turkey's activity in the area, Borrell said that "the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean is becoming worse."

Bulgaria is one step closer to the idea of ​​becoming a European training center in the area of disasters, accidents and catastrophes. Parliament supported the construction of such a center, as well as a school for paramedics, with amendments at first reading to the Bulgarian Red Cross Act.

Bulgaria has the second highest death rate in the European Union after Romania in terms of road traffic fatalities. In 2019, the road deaths rate in the country was 89 per one million people. The average figure for the European Union is 51 road deaths per one million people.

The European Commission has proposed to gradually lift travel ban from July 1 for non-EU citizens coming from countries where the epidemiological situation is the same or better than that in the EU.

The detailed list will be announced later, Ylva Johansson, EU commissioner for home affairs, told reporters on June 11.