The future of a multi-billion dollar Budapest-Belgrade rail construction has been thrown into doubt after Hungary redirected its equipment and workforce to address a deteriorating railway line between Budapest and Gyor, west Hungary. According to reports, the Chinese have ceased financing the construction, and their employees halted work. Companies owned
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Monday 18 September issued a warning to Austria, stating that if Austria does not remove its veto on Romania’s Schengen accession bid by December, Romania will take the matter to the EU Court of Justice. Austria has been blocking the entry of Romania
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary have come under criticism from the international community including the EU, Ukraine and Germany for extending prohibitions on Ukrainian agricultural imports. German Agriculture Minister Cem Ozdemir on Monday, 18 September, told the countries: “You show solidarity when it suits you. When you don’t like it,
Evika Silina asked to be judged by her achievements, as she became Latvia’s new prime minister and its second-ever female premier on Friday, 15 September. Silina, 48, is a member of the centre-right party Jauna Vienotiba (New Unity) party that won Latvia’s general election in late 2022 and
A section of the Rail Baltica rail project connecting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania faces a significant cost escalation, potentially reaching up to four times the initial estimate made six years ago, according to a new report by Latvian Television’s “De Facto” programme. As Latvia presently uses trains from the
The number of cars with a hybrid drive sold in Czechia increased by almost 41% to 25,987 in the first eight months of the year, according to current data from the Czech Association of Automobile Importers. Of these, plug-in hybrids sales grew by 69%, to 3,566 cars, while
Romania’s development and evolution are defined by resilience, sustainability, transparency, equity and efficiency, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told the Annual Meeting of Romanian Diplomacy last week. Romania must enter as many foreign markets as possible, Ciolacu said, and he asked Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu to initiate a
The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) insurance market reached a total of EUR 12.5bn by the end of the first quarter of 2023, a year-on-year rise of 10.2%. All CEE markets exhibited annual growth, led by Poland, with EUR 4.3bn gross written premium (GWP), followed by Czechia
Poland’s leading political parties made election promises on Saturday, 9 September, as the conservative nationalist ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and the opposition Civic Coalition (KO) held conferences ahead of the national elections on 15 October. PiS, in power since 2015, is striving to win a third term,
The members of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) will gather for its annual summit, entitled 3SI Investing into a Resilient Tomorrow, Business Forum 2023, on Wednesday and Thursday 6-7 September. The 3SI groups Central and Eastern European (CEE) nations located between the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic seas: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Lithuania were among the 13 EU member states to request loans from the European Recovery Fund’s Recovery and Resilience Mechanism (RRF), the European Commission announced Friday. The deadline for submissions of loan requests from the NextGenerationEU fund’s resources
In the first half of 2023, businesses owned by Estonian e-residents contributed EUR 37.7mn in tax revenue, a 57% increase compared to the same period in 2022. The majority of these tax contributions, accounting for 55% or EUR 20.6mn, originated from labor taxes paid by e-resident companies registered
The EU’s two top institutions seemed to be suffering from a lack of agreement – and even consultation – over enlargement last week as European Council President Charles Michel proposed a 2030 target for the EU for candidate countries in southern-eastern Europe. “Enlargement is no longer a dream… it is time
The purchase of Apache helicopters is a very good and militarily sensible investment (and) confirms that Poland could have the strongest army in NATO after the United States,” former Europe and NATO policy head Jim Townsend told Polish state news agency PAP on Saturday, 26th August. The respected defence expert’
Hungary will send money to Republika Srpska (RS) to cover funds that Germany withdrew earlier this year due to the separatist policies of President Milorad Dodik, according to the leader of the majority-Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). After visiting Budapest last weekend, Dodik held a press conference and
European Council President Charles Michel will announce that the EU should be ready to accept new members by 2030, when he opens the Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) in Bled, north-western Slovenia, on Monday, 28 August. Michel will reportedly tell leaders of EU candidate countries at the event that “If we
Pressure to resign is building on Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas amid revelations that her husband part-owns a company that is still active in Russia. A staunch Kremlin critic, Kallas has consistently advocated for Europe to sever business ties with Russia and Belarus. Last year she even went beyond official
German munitions company Rheinmetall proclaimed its unit for armoured vehicles as Europe’s most advanced plant when it inaugurated the new factory in Zalaegerszeg, western Hungary, on Friday, 18 August. Amongst other military hardware, the high-tech facility will make the Lynx, the world’s most advanced infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)
Romania’s Finance Minister Marcel Bolos said he is introducing prudent spending measures to put the country on a development path, despite potential negative consequences at the ballot box, in a speech in Beclean, north Romania, on Friday 19 August. Bolos, a member of Marcel Ciolacu’s Social Democratic rotation
The emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are closing in on their Western neighbours thanks to the emergence of new technologies, and nowhere more so than Poland, according to Britain’s oldest independent research institute. CEE is likely to become a new centre of gravity of economic growth
Hungarian President Katalin Novak reiterated her country’s support for a peace deal with Russia in a speech at the opening ceremony of the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Saturday, 19 August. Novak, a close confidante of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said “in the next nine days,
FedEx Express, the world’s largest provider of express transportation services, has inaugurated another facility in Kielce, southern Poland, its sixth in the country. Since 2020, the company has initiated, modernized, or constructed 12 facilities across six countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In Poland alone, newly established facilities
Polish President Andrzej Duda this week set October 15 as the date for a general election that both sides are calling Poland’s most important since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Poland is an increasingly important player in EU relations, both economically and in terms of defence,
Poland and Czechia are the leading countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for offering temporary protection status to Ukrainian refugees, according to new figures released this week by Eurostat. According to the EU’s official statistics agency, at the end of June, Poland was giving 977,740 people temporary
The National Bank of Romania (BNR) revised upward, to 7.5% its inflation prognosis for the end of this year on Wednesday, 9 August. According to the data presented by the central bank’s governor Mugur Isarescu, inflation will be 4.4% at the end of 2024. Presenting the Quarterly