Republics

Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) is a measure of material welfare of households. Across the Member States in 2017, AIC per capita expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) varied from 54% of the European Union (EU) average in Bulgaria to 132% in Luxembourg.

The Romanian economy continues to perform in the third quarter of this year, with the economic growth being by 1.9pct higher than in the second quarter of 2018, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said on Thursday in the opening of the Government's meeting.

Turkey has taken various initiatives against violence targeting women, but there are still shortfalls in the implementation of the legislative and policy framework, according to Feride Acar, a prominent Turkish academic.

Hundreds of migrants including children and families have been illegally returned from Greece to Turkey despite Greek authorities being repeatedly warned about the practice, three non-governmental organizations said on Dec. 12.

Discussion on "Elections - Transparency and Trust" will be held on the initiative of the head of state Rumen Radev, reported the Bulgarian National Television. 

Representatives of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary are invited to attend the meeting.

These naive artists hail from Kovacica, in northern Serbia.

Brnabic "expressed her gratitude to all individuals who contributed to the exhibition, announcing she would advocate the creativity of Kovacica to be included on UNESCO's Cultural Heritage List next year," the Serbian government said on its website.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has called on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to shed any irredentist ambitions.

During a visit to a military outpost near the Greek-FYROM border on Wednesday, Kammenos said that Greece wanted to maintain peaceful ties with its Balkan neighbor.

Currently, the debate on the Mobility Package in the Council of Europe is over, and things have already been decided. The ball is in the European Parliament, by 10 January there is nothing else to happen.

Total revenue from tourist overnights spent in Bulgaria rose by 11.5% year-on-year to 49.9 million levs ($28.9 million/25.5 million euro) in October, the country's statistical office, NSI, said on Wednesday.

"There can be no successful policies without a strong economy, just as there can be no strong economic performance without an adequate state policy towards businesses, with regard to quality of education, administrative burden, the fight against corruption," said President Rumen Radev at a meeting with representatives of the Association of the Organizations of Bulgarian Employers.