Organizations

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila met on Sunday in Bucharest with Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, with the Romanian PM expressing the special interest of the Government in Bucharest to promote cooperation with the Arab states.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov arrived in Sharm El-Sheikh for the first EU-US Summit of Heads of State and Government and the League of Arab States (LAD), reported NOVA TV. 

The Forum aims to highlight the need for enhanced strategic relations between the EU and the Arab world, as well as to set guidelines for addressing global challenges.

Nachiket Mor, national director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in India and former board member of the country's Reserve Bank, traveled to Athens recently on the invitation of Greece's Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) to deliver a lecture on the subject of health systems in developing countries.

So many people seem to have reached breaking point, slammed physically and mentally by exhaustion. The pressure on the people of a country that is bankrupt on so many different levels is calculable in megatons; more so because whatever light may be shimmering at the end of the tunnel is constantly being blocked out by toxic and torpid forces.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is in a difficult situation at the moment, and swift action is needed for this entity not to fall apart, Cecilia Malmstrom, European Commissioner for Trade told on Friday a joint press conference held at the Parliament Palace with the Minister for the Business Milieu, Commerce and Entrepreneurship, Stefan-Radu Oprea.

The meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) on Europol is to take place on 24 and 25 February in Bucharest, in the context of the parliamentary dimension of the Romanian presidency of the European Union's Council.

The Euro-Atlantic family is going through one of the worst crises in its history, as its unity is being challenged, mainly by its most powerful member. The parents in the Western family - the US and Europe - are locked in a confrontation that until a short while ago seemed unthinkable, leaving their creation, NATO itself, in the grips of - one could argue - existential angst.

* Challenges but also benefits ahead, says latest EBRD Transition Report * Serbia should advance public sector reforms, privatisation and SOE restructuring, report says * Better access to finance for SMEs and transparent rules are key for progress

The Permanent Representative Committee of the governments of Member States approved the provisional agreement reached by the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union with the European Parliament on the Natural Gas Directive, with the next step being the adoption of the Directive by the European Parliament, the Ministry of Energy announced on Thursday.

Minister-delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba met on Wednesday with Secretary of State for European Affairs with Portugal's Foreign Affairs Ministry Ana Paula Zacarias. The discussions of the two officials focused on the working programme of Romania's Presidency at the EU Council and the ongoing developments at European level in relation with the current agenda.