A collection of 361 posts
The war in Ukraine is set to inflict twice the amount of economic damage that the COVID-19 pandemic did, the World Bank says in its new report that includes detailed outlook analyses for Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. According to the Washington-based lender’s ECA Economic Update Spring 2022 report,
NATO leaders will formulate plans to bolster its eastern flank across Central and Eastern Europe at a summit in Madrid in June, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced. Calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the “biggest security crisis in a generation”, Stoltenberg said “regardless of when, how, the war in Ukraine ends
The Polish Finance Ministry confirmed on Thursday that the European Commission (EC) has paid Poland EUR 30 million less in EU funding over the country’s failure to pay European Court of Justice (ECJ) fines, in an unprecedented move. The ECJ has so far levied EUR 200 million in penalties
Poland adopted draft legislation on Wednesday to prohibit coal imports from Russia. In its efforts to move away from all Russian energy sources, Warsaw says coal will be cut off within two months, while oil imports should cease by the end of 2022, according to Notes From Poland. Poland’s
Hungary cancelled a scheduled summit of defence ministers from the Visegrad 4 (“V4”) group of EU member states – Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – on Tuesday. The defence ministers of both Czechia and Poland signalled they would not attend the gathering, scheduled for 30-31 March, due to Hungary’s stance on
In a speech closing his visit to Poland, US President Joe Biden reassured NATO allies in Central and Eastern Europe that America does have their back in case of an attack by Russia, honouring its “sacred obligation” under Article 5, writes Notes from Poland. Biden warned Moscow: “Don’t even
NATO representatives meeting on Thursday will consider boosting the strength of the defence alliance’s eastern flank even further given Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. While NATO has already bumped up troop numbers, which now number 40,000 on its eastern border, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia could see
Efforts to reduce dependency upon Russian sources of energy within countries in Central and Eastern Europe have taken on a new urgency following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine over three weeks ago. Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Asen Vassilev says Bulgaria will not renew its contract with Gazprom when the
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Slovakia providing air defence systems to Ukraine is a no-go, according to an article on Euractiv. This week Bratislava said it was considering sending Soviet-era S-300 missile systems if it received Western replacements from its NATO allies. Any arms supply
A theatre sheltering 1,200 civilians in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday night. An estimated 400,000 residents in the southern port city are still without running water, electricity and gas, and unable to leave. Hundreds of patients and staff are still being held captive in
The BBC reported that Russian troops were holding 400 doctors and patients captive in a hospital in the coastal city of Mariupol on Tuesday evening. In a separate development, the city’s local authorities said that around 2,000 cars were able to leave the besieged city, and the ICRC
While the Hungarian forint was hardest hit, all the currencies of the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region are suffering adverse effects as a result of the war in Ukraine. Proximity to the war zone, dependence on Russian gas and the impact of EU sanctions combined to commence the CEE
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held a fourth round of peace talks on Monday, aiming for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of Russian troops, and security guarantees for Ukraine. Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of office for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the BBC that Moscow’s approach was becoming “more
Russian forces launched a missile attack on the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security, in the west of Ukraine, Sunday morning, according to the BBC. Euronews reports that the Russian military claimed to have killed up to 180 “foreign mercenaries” and substantial weapons shipped in in strikes against the military
The European Commission said it planned to cut its reliance on fossil fuels from Russia by 2030, reducing dependence on Russian sources of energy by two-thirds by the end of the year. But it turned out there will be no ban on imports of Russian oil and gas imports to