Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries are over-achievers regarding ‘digital quality of life’, according to the latest Digital Quality of Life (DQL) index. A strong e-culture generally correlates closely with GDP per capita, but 9 of the 21 global exceptions to this rule were in Eastern Europe in 2020: Bulgaria,
Polish Climate and Environment minister Anna Moskwa appeared to reverse Poland’s commitment to cutting coal power by 2030 on Thursday, just hours after her government had signed up for the policy at the COP26 climate conference. More than 40 major fuel-burning countries including Poland and Ukraine pledged to phase
Bulgarians will go to the polls for the third time in a year as a result of the country’s severe political crisis. On 14 November, once again, Bulgarian citizens will have to choose a new parliament and a president, too. After already failing twice to be able to form
Leaders of the Visegrad 4 (V4) group of countries – Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland – have invited South Korea’s industries to participate in the building of a high speed railway project that would connect two capital cities in central Europe. Their overture took place in the context of the prime
South Korea’s president and representatives of the Visegrad 4 (V4) group countries have pledged to boost their economic cooperation in the fields of electric vehicles, batteries and infrastructure, among others. In their meeting at the V4-Korea Business Forum on 3 November, President Moon Jae-in and the leaders of Czech
Romania could become the first country to deploy a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR), according to an agreement between the country’s state-owned nuclear energy producer Nuclearelectrica and US energy firm NuScale Power. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry made an announcement to
In the first visit to Taiwan by an official European Union delegation, 13 MEPs have met with Taiwanese premier Su Tseng-chang today in Taipei. Their visit comes in the wake of the EU having passed a resolution in October to “intensify EU-Taiwan political relations” and establish a bilateral investment agreement.
In conjunction with South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s 9-day tour of Europe, Slovakia and South Korea have inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that could result in the delivery of Korean-built defense training aircraft to Slovakia. Bratislava is looking to replace its fleet of training aircraft and plans on
Czechia looks set to be ruled by a liberal, centre-right coalition after five parties agreed on a joint programme on Tuesday, around one month after outgoing Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s narrow election defeat. Prospective prime minister Petr Fiala, who leads the liberal-conservative, eurosceptic Civic Democratic Party (ODS), said Tuesday
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, begins a 9-day tour of Europe this week, ending with a meeting of the regional “Visegrad 4” group, where boosting business cooperation in areas like batteries and electric vehicles will be on the agenda. Today, president Moon is scheduled to meet with his Hungarian
North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced his resignation after his party, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), suffered a heavy defeat in the country’s municipal elections on Sunday. “I take responsibility for the outcome of the elections and therefore am resigning as prime minister and SDSM president,
Hungarian entrepreneurs who were left out of pocket due to the nationalisation of tobacconists finally look set to receive compensation for missing revenues. The deadline for damages applications from Hungary’s e-cigarette traders passed on Sunday 31 October, 2021, almost a decade after the government introduced a state monopoly of
China’s Alibaba has high hopes for increasing its slice of the online retail pie in Europe and has plans to use a Chinese online shopping holiday to do just that, challenging Amazon and other e-commerce businesses for market share. According to Euromonitor International, within Eastern Europe Alibaba is among
It has been hailed in the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as their most ambitious shared project for a century. Rail Baltica – a EUR 5.8 billion high-speed railway between Helsinki and Warsaw – was originally planned for completion in 2026. However the north-east-Europe-spanning rail-link between the Finnish and
Russian state-owned Gazprom has offered Moldova a new and improved gas-supply contract on condition that it drops its tariff-free trade deal with the EU and postpones the energy market reforms it has agreed with the bloc, the Financial Times wrote, citing sources familiar with the negotiations. Russia, which supplies and
“The benefits of euro adoption would outweigh the disadvantages,” Croatian President Zoran Milanovic announced after meeting George Vella, his opposite number in Malta, on Wednesday. Croatia’s head of state opposed joining the Eurozone throughout his 2019 presidential campaign, local media noted. Milanovic explained that Malta, which adopted the currency
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi commenced a whistlestop diplomatic tour of Europe yesterday in Greece, where he met his opposite number Nikos Dendias. Wang will also visit Serbia, Albania and Italy to talk trade, investment and cultural relations with the countries, all of which are participants in China’s Belt
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Wednesday ordered Poland to pay EUR 1 million on a daily basis for not suspending national legislation, particularly the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court’s disciplinary chamber, which critics say is being used to punish independent judges. The row over the rule of
Despite the European Union’s explicit plans to prepare a subsidy package for the microchip industry that matches with United States investments in the sector – preliminary figures don’t add up. Politico writes that the EC’s plans will collide with the EU competition rules and too time-consuming decision-making. The
A professor at Hungary’s Matthias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), these days Zoltán Cséfalvay studies robotization. Of his current teaching and research there, he offers: “We are dealing with the economic issues, the technological part of the industrial revolution, what impacts it has on society and employment, and on geopolitics as
Loosening the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) would lessen the currently dramatic rises in energy prices, Estonia’s Economy and Infrastructure Minister Taavi Aas wrote on Tuesday. The ETS is not the root cause of the recent soar in European gas and electricity prices, but modifications to it could
Italy has blocked the purchase of global seed producer Verisem by a Chinese-owned group. As part of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s so-called “golden power” veto to prevent strategic assets from being sold off to foreign interests, a source told Reuters that the Italian government had prevented Swiss-based Syngenta, from
Croatia’s Supreme Court sentenced MOL chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernadi and the country’s former prime minister Ivo Sanader to prison sentences for bribery on Monday. Hernadi paid Sanader EUR 10 million in bribes in 2008-09 to secure Hungarian energy firm MOL’s management rights in its Croatian peer INA, the
The three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – are all highly competitive in terms of taxes, according to the latest International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI). Estonia leads the ITCI rankings for the eighth consecutive year thanks to minimal levies on non-resident businesses, low marginal tax rates on individual income and
The governments of nine EU member states, among them Germany, have signed a joint statement that they cannot back any measure – including plans for an EU electricity reform – which conflicts with the gas and energy markets. The letter came as a reaction to the French-Spanish proposal presented at last week’