Hungarian PM Viktor Orban needs to offer a “sound explanation” of his country's decision to grant political asylum to the former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski, Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahh tweeted on Wednesday. Hahn tweeted that he had seen reports about the asylum granted in Hungary. “If confirmed, I expect a sound explanation of its grounds by @Viktor_Orban,” his tweet read.

Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip, will be in Berlin tomorrow to participate in the Platform Economy Summit as well as a seminar on artificial intelligence, which brings together decision-makers from across multiple sectors and countries with leaders of online platforms, government officials and investors.

The EU Commission released on Thursday the results of a new Eurobarometer study on the public knowledge on antibiotics and overall trends in their use ahead of the 11th European Antibiotic Awareness Day. The study, conducted with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), shows that there has been a positive evolution in the use of antibiotics: 32% of people said they had taken antibiotics in the last twelve months, compared to 40% in the 2009 survey.

The European Commission has awarded an additional €43.7m in emergency assistance to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support Greece in responding to migratory challenges. The grant has been awarded from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and will support the provision of emergency shelter for up to 6,000 asylum seekers and refugees by rapidly establishing places in temporary accommodation facilities.

The European Commission adopted its latest report on steps taken by Bulgaria to meet its commitments on judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM).

European Commission's Vice-President for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic travels today to Germany for a two-day series of meetings focused mainly on Europe's competiveness in the field of electro mobility and the support for a just transition in coal-intensive regions.

On Tuesday EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Elzbieta Bienkowska will arrive in Berlin, where she will attend at the NATO-Industry Forum 2018. At the event the Commissioner will deliver a keynote address as will the Supreme Allied Commander General Andre Lanata, the Head of the German Chancellery Helge Braun and the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg. 

Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos arrived yesterday in Washington DC to participate in a EU - US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial meeting on Thursday and Friday. The Commissioner is there to represent the bloc together with the Austrian Federal Minister of the Interior Herbert Kickl and Federal Minister of Justice Josef Moser on behalf of the Austrian Presidency.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker expects that the European economy will lose more and more importance in the foreseeable future. In 30 years, according to his vision, no EU member state will belong to the Group of Seven (G7) - the union of the largest advanced economies in the world.

Growth both in the Eurozone and EU-27 is set to ease from a 10-year high in the next few years, according to the Commission's Autumn forecast released last Thursday. Eurozone growth is expected to be 2.1% in 2018 before moderating to 1.9% in 2019 and 1.7% in 2020. The same pattern is expected for the EU27, with growth forecast at 2.2% in 2018, 2.0% in 2019 and 1.9% in 2020.