Hungarian PM Viktor Orban will hold talks with Bulgarian leaders in Sofia on Friday and then come to Bucharest, where he will meet with Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, Bertalan Havasi, the Hungarian prime minister’s spokesman, announced on Wednesday, as quoted by the state agency MTI. Hungarian premier Orban is to speak about the results of the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council at a joint press conference with the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission. On Friday, the Hungarian prime minister will hold talks in Sofia with Bulgarian leaders, before continuing his tour to Bucharest to meet with his Romanian counterpart Marcel Ciolacu, the same statement said. The visit to Romania and Bulgaria comes in the context of the two states achieving full Schengen accession during Hungary’s mandate at the head of the EU Council. According to the official program presented by Havasi, Orban will travel to Brussels on Wednesday, where the summit of the European Union and the Western Balkan countries will take place, and on Thursday he will participate in the European Council meeting. At the closing press conference of the summit, Viktor Orban, who will also be joined by the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission, will provide information on the results of the six months of the Hungarian EU presidency, said Bertalan Havasi. Viktor Orban will then travel to Bulgaria and Romania, states that have achieved full membership, as of 1 January 2025, during Hungary’s mandate at the Council of the European Union. Hungary has set the goal of completing the accession of the two states to Schengen upon taking over the mandate. “It is in Hungary’s national interest,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in October about Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen. EU interior ministers voted on December 12 for Romania and Bulgaria to join Schengen with land borders from January 1. The two states had already been in Schengen with sea and air borders since March. “Signed and initialed – dear Bulgarian and Romanian friends, welcome to the Schengen area!” was the message of the Hungarian EU presidency, immediately after the unanimous vote on accession.
June is the richest month. The most awaited two weeks in my annual festival pilgrimage. The route starts with Romania’s Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), followed by Italy’s (and the world’s) most comprehensive festival for restored and archival film: Il Cinema Ritrovato. To shake up the traditional article on the two, I’ll start with the […]
Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]
Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]
Roughly 70% of Romanians are “very” or “moderately” concerned about how AI accesses and uses their data, according to the latest survey conducted by RoCoach in partnership with Novel Research between May and June 2025. Distrust in automated decision-making and the demand for regulation are becoming more pronounced, as Romania rolls out major digitalization projects […]
The Armenian Street Festival returns for a 9th edition between August 1 and 3, 2025, in the “Dimitrie Brândză” Botanical Garden in Bucharest. The festival brings into focus the living heritage of the Armenian community in Romania and the diaspora. According to the organizers, this year’s edition aims to strengthen the Bucharest–Chișinău–Yerevan cultural axis, articulated […]
The Romanian mergers and acquisitions market registered a total of 122 announced transactions in the first half of 2025, with a value exceeding EUR 2.7 billion, marking a slight increase of 6% in volume and 4% in value compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis by George Ureche, partner at PwC Romania. […]
