Several CEE countries including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland will only send officials to the meetings being arranged in Budapest to mark Hungary’s EU six-month stint at the rotating presidency this month. Discussions are ongoing in several other countries. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has received a lot of
US intelligence discovered earlier this year that the Russian government planned to assassinate Armin Papperger, the chief executive of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, which makes artillery shells and military vehicles for Ukraine, CNN reported. Rheinmetall is the largest and most successful German manufacturer of the vital 155mm artillery shells that
Lithuania’s outgoing government led by Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte faced multiple crises over its four years in power, some of them natural, and others self-inflicted, local media wrote as she left office. Black swan events from the start Simonyte’s centre-right government took office amidst the Covid-19 pandemic in
Poland has called for border protection discussions within NATO as China and Belarus carry out their first ever joint military manouevres near the Polish border. Chinese soldiers carrying out “anti-terrorism training” in Belarus add a new dynamic to the security situation in Central and Eastern Europe, as Russia’s war
Estonia has climbed into a higher innovation category according to new data from the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). Estonia became a Strong Innovator in 2024, after enjoying steady growth since 2017, the European Commission (EC) wrote in a statement released on Monday 8 July. The EC wrote that “Strong Innovators
Polish photovoltaic company RPower has signed with Polish State Development Bank (BGK) a loan agreement worth PLN 231mn (EUR 54.17 mln) for solar farms with a combined capacity of 72 MWp, the company announced. This is the third finance loan agreement RPower has signed this year. The projects will
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was accused of mission creep by the international community after he opened his first week hosting the six-month EU rotating presidency with unannounced trips to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing. Orban’s final destination after a busy week was Washington DC, for the long-planned NATO summit
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Friday 5 July gave his first public appearance since being seriously injured in an assassination attempt. Fico was shot by Juraj Cintula, a 71-year-old writer and political activist after a government meeting in Handlova on 15 May, since when he has had two operations.
The EU formally opened accession negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine on 25 June. The agreement of the EU’s 27 members was secured the previous week, despite efforts from Hungary to block the move. “These are truly historic moments. Ukraine is and will always be part of a united Europe,
Romania reported the highest inflation rate in May, of 5.8%, driven by significant increases in housing and utilities prices, according to the latest data from the EU’s official statistics agency Eurostat. Croatia experienced the second highest inflation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), of 4.3%, driven primarily
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Austria’s Freedom Party FPO leader Herbert Kickl and ANO party leader and former Czech prime minister Andrej Babis declared a “new era” as they announced a European Parliament political alliance named Patriots for Europe at a joint press conference in Vienna on Sunday, 30
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was nominated on Friday, 28 June as the EU’s foreign policy chief (High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy), subject to agreement from the European Commission (EC) president. Kallas will succeed Spain’s Josep Borrell and become the first politician
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is becoming increasingly vital to the EU’s manufacturing landscape, the German Marshall Fund of the United States writes in a new report entitled “Rethinking Industrial Policy for Central and Eastern Europe”. Current industrial policies in the EU are pivoting towards high-tech, capital-intensive industries, as
Serbia has said it is looking to give global mining group Rio Tinto the go ahead to create Europe’s largest lithium mine two years after Belgrade shelved the project following huge environmental protests. President Aleksandar Vucic told UK daily the Financial Times that “new guarantees” from the British-Australian company
Romanian companies are now obliged to offer customers the possibility to pay for purchased goods and services with credit and debit cards, under new regulations, effective Sunday, June 16. The law does not yet specify that a merchant must have a point of sale (POS) payment machine, as there is