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
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
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-
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,
“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-
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-
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
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
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
Daimler AG has begun production of a purely electric model, the Mercedes-Benz EQB, at its Mercedes plant in Kecskemét, Hungary. An investment of HUF 50 billion was made into the German carmaker’s facility toward the new product line, with Daimler putting up HUF 35.5 billion and the
After years of circling Hungary’s main airport, Prime Minister Viktor Orban finally declared the state’s intention to purchase Budapest Liszt Ferenc International this week. “This could happen at any moment”, he said. “It is only right if our sole major international airport is in Hungarian ownership (and can
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis has designated his country’s interim defence minister, Nicolae Ciuca, as prime minister to form Romania’s new government after designate Dacian Ciolos failed to receive a vote of confidence in parliament, according to reporting by Euractiv. Ciuca is a well-respected retired army general who
A leading think-tank has upped its growth forecast for Central, East and Southeast European economies this year to 5.4%, up from 4% in the summer in 2021. The region’s smaller services sector and looser COVID restrictions have been drivers in good economic performance, the Vienna Institute for
Hungary’s Ministry of Innovation and Technology and Hungary’s largest commercial bank OTP will collaborate to create Europe’s largest supercomputer, minister Laszlo Palkovics announced. The partnership will develop an AI-based Hungarian-language model for phone banking, he said. “We are not afraid of competing with technology companies,
Latvia has announced a month-long COVID lockdown after a surge in infections and hospitalisations, becoming the first EU country to reintroduce the strict conditions in place across much of Europe earlier in the year. In the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic, Latvia received praise for its successful response.
The East-West divide will be conspicuous on the agenda when EU heads of state and government gather at the bloc’s formal summit in Brussels on Thursday. While Hungary and Poland dispute the suspension of COVID recovery fund disbursements, the Western and Nordic European countries are pushing for the
Albania and North Macedonia are on the march towards EU accession talks, according to the latest annual European Commission (EC) progress report that assesses the membership chances of those two Western Balkan countries as well as Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are collectively known as the WB6.
Czech start-up Rossum will receive USD 100 million in venture capital from a consortium – including General Catalyst, one of the US’s biggest VC funds – to support its AI document-processing software. Rossum processes data and devises steps based on that content, reducing manual data entry work by 90%
Czech President Milos Zeman – who was hospitalised on 10 October, the morning after the general election – remains incapable of performing his official duties and could now have his powers removed to enable the formation of new cabinet. Opposition politicians are now discussing triggering Article 66 of the Constitution, which transfers