Taiwan has opened what it calls its Representative Office in Lithuania, defying China’s attempts to dissuade Vilnius from allowing what could be considered a de facto embassy for the self-governed island. Taiwan’s foreign ministry says that via the opening of the office, Taipei and Vilnius will deepen economic
The European Commission is proposing that soils are given the same legal status as air and water as part of the EU’s “Soil Strategy for 2030”. The plan, which still requires the approval of the European Parliament and EU member states, would create the first European regulation to allow
Lawmakers in Brussels have taken a step back from pursuing their plan to unveil a new strategy for EU trade and economic dealings with Taiwan, presumably hoping that sour relations with China won’t become worse. For months, EU and Beijing have been spatting due to bilateral sanctions instated by
Tier, a German shared mobility company with a presence in Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, is buying the bicycle sharing company Nextbike, it announced. The news comes after Tier’s USD 200mn funding round at the end of October. Tier is present in 148 cities in 16 countries, and combined with Nextbike
A total of six Central and Eastern European countries were public signatories to the agreement to transition to zero-emission vehicles at the COP26 summit on climate change which ended at the weekend. In a non-binding declaration Austria, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Ukraine pledged to “work towards all sales of
The newly-formed centrist “We Continue the Change” (PP) party won the elections in Bulgaria on Sunday, according to initial data. PP, which ran on an anti-corruption platform, gained almost 26% of the votes, ahead of former prime minister Boyko Borrisov’s ruling GERB party on just over 20%, according to
Hungary’s government is putting a cap on the price of petrol and diesel fuel whose prices have recently soared in the country in the midst of spiraling inflation. Fuel prices there are one-third higher than they were at the beginning of 2021, with the price of petrol having reached
With elections taking place in Bulgaria this Sunday for a new parliament and president, the GERB party has a comfortable lead on the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) while newcomer Continue the Change has the biggest vote reserve because it is the first choice of people who are determined to vote
Outgoing Czechia prime minister Andrej Babis appears set to face criminal charges after rival party leaders confirmed their MPs will vote to lift his parliamentary immunity. Prague prosecutor’s office made the request – which Babis called a “bespoke criminal prosecution” – after he was defeated at the polls last month. Since
America’s biggest food delivery firm DoorDash made a grand entrance onto the delivery service markets of Central and Eastern Europe on Tuesday with a EUR 7bn stock acquisition of Finland’s Wolt. As a startup, Wolt made its first delivery in Helsinki in 2014 and since then has expanded
A group of investors who collectively manage EUR 9 trillion has written a joint statement to the EU urging it not to classify natural gas and nuclear power as sustainable under its new system. The Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance comprises 60 international finance companies, including Allianz SE, Banco Santander, Barclays,
A report by a European travel industry group says Europe’s travel industry is recovering this year, but the continent has a long way to go before it will see pre Covid pandemic levels of guest arrivals. While the 2021 summer tourism season saw decent numbers, according to the latest
Estonia received the third most venture capital (VC) per person in the world over the last 12 months, according to business information platform Crunchbase. The Baltic country’s lofty position on the list is mainly due to the multinational Bolt, which raised nearly USD 700 million in a funding round
Ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in Bulgaria, Russian gas giant Gazprom has gone against market trends, giving Bulgaria’s state-run Bulgargaz a discount instead of an expected increase in the price the Bulgarian state-run gas company pays to purchase natural gas. Bulgargaz will receive Gazprom’s wholesale price discount
The Balkans are in danger of instability as the multi-ethnic state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) looks at risk of disintegration, according to regional observers. UN High Representative in BiH Christian Schmidt told Reuters on Saturday that the peace deal brought an uneasy peace to the country after the Balkan