A collection of 105 posts
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
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
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
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
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 participated
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 EU
Russian state-owned Gazprom and Hungarian energy group MVM signed a ten-year gas-supply agreement at the end of August. Under the deal, effective 1 October, Gazprom transits 4.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas to Hungary annually via two routes: 3.5bn through a new pipeline via Serbia and 1bn
For the citizens of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, the signs are ominous. As the Baltic countries look ahead to rising Covid-19 rates in plummeting temperatures, they are meanwhile facing soaring energy bills. The only hope for manageable energy bills is mild weather in the months ahead, representatives of electricity firms
While Fintech and Big Tech firms make incursions into the financial services sector, data is becoming the real commodity in a world of hyper-connections and open banking. Cryptocurrencies appear on the horizon and credit card companies are morphing into tech firms. Meanwhile banks are incorporating open banking into their services,
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Biden administration have brokered a compromise on the plan to introduce a global corporate tax regime with the three low-corporate tax states that had been holding out on the agreement. With Ireland, Estonia and Hungary now onboard, the ambitious measure
Corruption allegations against prime minister Andrej Babis are dominating the headlines in Czechia as its citizens prepare to go to the polls on Friday and Saturday. Already reeling from his ANO party’s fall in support during September – from 32.4% to 27.3%, according to pollster STEM – the oligarch
Leaders of EU member states and six countries in the Western Balkans – known as the WB6 – will renew vows of a “shared future” at Brdo Castle near Slovenia capital Ljubljana on 6 October. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen travelled to all of the WB6 capitals in
How do you organise a major global exhibition in the Covid-era? Exhibitions manager and curator at World Press Photo, Sanne Schim van der Loeff, told CET how she and her colleagues have kept the show on the road, as it opened at the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest. World Press
Uncertainty could loom over Europe for some time following this past weekend’s German elections, which did not produce a clear winner. Although the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) won by a narrow margin of 1.5% ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), a long and wary period