Stock markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) fell sharply after US President Donald Trump announced retaliatory tariffs on global imports on 2 April 2025, spooking the region's export-dependent economies and reviving fears of a wider economic slowdown.
CEE Stock Market Weekly Performance to 7 April 2025
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A total of three US soldiers were found dead while a fourth remains missing after their armoured recovery vehicle became submerged in a peat bog during a NATO training exercise near the Belarusian border in Lithuania on 25 March 2025. The incident occurred at the General Silvestras Zukauskas Training Area
The US and Russia are discussing the potential reopening of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, raising significant concerns across Europe, according to media reports.
The natural gas pipeline, which runs beneath the Baltic Sea, aimed to double Russian gas exports to Germany. However, it has remained inactive since its
Romania and Poland have gender pay disparities among the lowest in the EU, according to Eurostat data published this month. In Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Romania and Poland recorded the smallest gender pay gaps in 2023, at 3.6% and 4.5% respectively — both well below the EU average
Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur pushed back on Tuesday against criticism of the country’s joint ammunition procurement strategy, defending multilateral arrangements as the most efficient way to ensure quick and cost-effective delivery.
Pevkur, a member of the Reform Party, rejected claims that Estonia would have received munitions faster through
As political landscapes shift across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), governments are recalibrating their approaches to Ukraine, European security, and internal governance.
The region remains split between pro-European integration and nationalist, often pro-Kremlin, forces: Czechia and Poland reinforce their commitments to Ukraine, while Hungary and Slovakia align with Moscow.
Meanwhile,
Poland is set to purchase an additional 180 K2 Black Panther main battle tanks for approximately USD 6.2bn (EUR 5.7bn), South Korean government officials announced on 9 March. The proposed agreement could be finalised as soon as next month and follows Poland’s earlier USD 12.4bn deal
Except for wartorn Ukraine, Slovakia has the most red tape in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), according to the latest Bureaucracy Index, an annual report by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS).
The Bureaucracy Index measures the time and resources businesses must dedicate to compliance with government regulations.
The dramatic breakdown of relations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance on Friday, 28 February, is prompting Central and Eastern European (CEE) nations to urgently reassess regional defence strategies.
The meeting, streamed from the Oval Office, was ostensibly held to formalise
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on European leaders to increase their defence spending while maintaining close ties with the US, before an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris on Tuesday, 18 February.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to attempt to negotiate a peace deal on Ukraine with
German companies are considering ramping up investments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), with 55% expecting the region’s economic significance to grow in the next 5 years, according to the “German CEE Business Outlook 2025” report by auditor KPMG.
The survey analysed the economic prospects and business strategies of
Leaders from Central and Eastern (CEE) countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were among the signatories of an invitation to ex-NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg to draw up a white paper on regional defence collaboration, ahead of the alliance’s summit scheduled in The Hague, the Netherlands, in June.
Stoltenberg will
Lufthansa Group acquired a 10% stake in Latvia’s airBaltic for EUR 14mn on January 29, pending antitrust approval. Europe’s largest airline group has long been interested in the Baltic region, and airBaltic, headquartered in Riga, Latvia, and flying to over 100 destinations across Europe, the Middle East and
NATO deployed a multinational flotilla off the Estonian coast at the weekend to defend undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea amid escalating concerns of sabotage.
Baltic Sentry aims to deter hybrid threats targeting power cables, pipelines, and data lines crucial to the region’s stability. Dubbed the “security camera of
Electric vehicle (EV) adoption across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) remains uneven, with significant variations between countries in the region, according to new data from the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Adoption rates in CEE lag behind Western Europe: the Western Balkans, for example, has just 1,540 public EV charging