The Polish government received approval from the US State Department for a potential USD 10bn weapons deal aimed at modernising its military, on Tuesday 7 February. Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak tweeted that “the great reinforcement of the Polish artillery is getting closer. The US State Department has approved the
The European Union expanded its ban on Russian diesel fuel and refined oil products with immediate effect on Sunday 5 February, two months after its initial embargo. The ban is accompanied by a price cap of USD 100 per barrel for diesel, jet fuel, and gasoline, agreed upon by the
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with a working group aiming to save the indebted steel company Dunaferr on Wednesday, 1 February. Dunaferr manufactures steel products for the engineering, automotive, and manufacturing sectors in Dunaujvaros, central Hungary, employing around 4,000. After Wednesday’s meeting with the working group, which
OTP Bank has been cleared by Slovenian Competition Protection Agency (AVK) to acquire Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM), Slovenia’s second largest bank, the Hungarian bank announced on Wednesday 1 February. The acquisition of all NKBM’s equity, which has been valued by media outlets at roughly EUR 1bn, was
So often the exemplar in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Estonia has been named the region’s most transparent country in the annual Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released by the NGO on Tuesday, 31 January. In 2022, Estonia placed 14th globally, with a CPI score of 74,
Retired General Petr Pavel, a former senior NATO commander, won the Czech presidency in a record-breaking victory over former prime minister Andrej Babis on Saturday. In the head-to-head second round of voting, pro-EU Pavel received 58.3% of the ballots, to Babis’s 41.68%, the largest ever victory margin
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded Hungary’s credit rating by one step to the lowest investment grade of BBB- on Friday, partly due to Hungary’s current struggles in accessing some EUR 30bn of EU funding. The credit ratings agency also pointed to the negative effects of
The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday endorsed a package of 24 guarantee programmes worth EUR 2.4bn to support investments in the EU’s neighbourhood and enlargement countries in the West Balkans. The new guarantees approved by the EC’s Operational Board of the European Fund are classified under the
Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia have jointly requested EU funding to develop the necessary infrastructure to support increased gas supplies from Azerbaijan. The countries say they recognize the importance of energy security for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and see the potential for Azerbaijan to play a crucial role in
Bulgaria is preparing for a new general election in the spring, following the failure of the country’s Socialist Party to form a working government. The Socialists, who were given a third and final chance to establish a cabinet after the 2 October election brought no clear winner, announced that
Railway infrastructure managers from Czechia, Poland and the Baltics signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in connection with building almost 2,800 miles of high-speed railway across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) on Wednesday. The MOU was signed in Warsaw at the Railway Direction Days conference, and builds on a
More people in Estonia use online banking services than anywhere else in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), according to a new report by the official EU statistics office Eurostat. In Estonia, 83.36% of residents used digital banking in 2022, with Latvia close behind on 82.45%. Other countries high
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the oil pipeline project between Alexandroupolis, east Greece, and Burgas, east Bulgaria, will be signed very soon, Armenian state news agency Armenpress reported Bulgarian Energy Minister Rosen Hristov as saying on Saturday. “The energy crisis in Europe,” Hristov said, “calls for even closer cooperation
Retired General Petr Pavel will face ex-prime minister Andrej Babis in Czechia’s presidential runoff vote after narrowly beating him into second place in an eight-candidate ballot on Friday and Saturday, 13-14 January. Pavel received 35.4% of the votes, to Andrej Babis’s 34.99%, missing the simple majority
As President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine nears its first anniversary and Russia regroups, the defence sector politics of Central and Eastern Europe are also in transition. Fighting is moving to the flatter eastern Donbas region, in the wake of Russia’s retreat from the outskirts of Kyiv. To