During the working lunch in Brussels, dedicated to the Lisbon treaty, Nicolas Sarkozy noted that the leaders were meeting "specific difficulties" with the Czechs, too.

Belgian Foreign Minister Olivier Chastel went even further in his statements and said that the Czechs "do not want to hear the reasons" of the countries striving to the Lisbon agreement.

European pharmaceutical companies today called for zero tolerance of the EU regarding the illegal production of drugs, which has gained colossal strength.

The president of "Sanofi-Aventis" and Vice President of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries Jean-Francois Jean-Francois Dehecq made this call today at Federation's annual meeting in Paris.

European Union decided to suspend the sanctions against Cuba, said Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, cited by Reuters.

This decision was taken at the working dinner of the 27 EU member states in Brussels.

In a report, adopted today by 579 votes Yes, 17 Against and 86 Abstained, the European Parliament supported the accession of Slovakia to the euro zone from January 1, 2009. Meanwhile, the deputies stressed that the country had to continue its efforts to maintain low inflation and implement structural reforms in the economic sphere, said the press service of the Parliament.

European employers claimed that they did not support any increase of the interest rates of European Central Bank (ECB) in July, although they understood the aspiration of Frankfurt Bank to react against the strong inflation in Europe.

Poland is the only country from the new EU members which has no official date for introducing the euro. Dr. Pavel Samiski, a member of the board of directors of the Polish National Bank, is one of the people who are preparing a report

In times where the credit crisis is hitting seriously real estate markets in the world, things look ever better in our northern neighbour Romania, writes Europa.re.

According to data issued earlier this month, the growth of Romanian economy for the first quarter was truly remarkable - 8.2%. This is nearly three times more compared to the EU average of for the same period.

The Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria Anthony Hasiotis said at a conference that members of the Chamber wanted to work in an environment of transparency with equal opportunities for everyone and where the same rules applied to everyone, with a strong legal, judicial and control framework, which among other things supported business initiatives, BTA reported.

The government starts developing a draft project for the building of block VII of Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant. The document will lie in the concept for development of atomic energy, argues Mediapool, quoting two independent sources involved in the process. A week earlier the Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev appointed a working group to put down the concept.

The minister of Transport Petar Mutafchiev will take part in the forum "Economic Partnership EU - United States: Fair and transparent business environment in Bulgaria", announced from the press centre of the Ministry of Transport.