Organizations

* 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.

EU ambassadors on Wednesday agreed on a European Council's negotiating position on a regulation on the European Border and Coast Guard; on the basis of this mandate, the Romanian presidency of the Council will start negotiations with the European Parliament, Romania's Interior Ministry (MAI) reports in a press statement.

The number of illegal migrants entering the European Union fell sharply for the third year in a row in 2018 but arrivals remain high and stronger border controls are needed, the head of the EU's border control agency Frontex said Wednesday.

Maintaining the macroeconomic stability and fully implementing the reforms required to tackle the basic structural deficiencies of the Serbian economy will be the main challenge for the economic policy, says Sebastian Sosa, head of the IMF Office in Serbia.

The Trade Ministers of the EU gather in Bucharest between 21 and 22 February, at the informal meeting that will be chaired by Business Environment, Trade and Entrepreneurship Minister Stefan-Radu Oprea, in the context of Romania's Presidency at the EU Council.

Minister-delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba chaired in Brussels on Tuesday the General Affairs Council (GAC) meeting under the aegis of Romania's Presidency at the EU Council, where there was tackled an important topic on the discussion agenda, namely the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), a release of the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) informs.

World-renowned professor of economics Jeffrey Sachs is in Cyprus to deliver the 2019 Hubert Curien Memorial Lecture at the Cyprus Institute. The lecture starts at 6.30 p.m. and live streaming will be available on the Cyprus Institute's YouTube channel. The title of the lecture is "Eudaimonia in the 21st Century: Looking to Aristotle for New Solutions."

The Greek director of the WWF conservation group was on Tuesday joined by his counterparts from France, Spain and Italy as they expressed their "grave concern" over the potential development of new onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling projects in Western Greece.