A collection of 179 posts
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
Slovakia’s capital city Bratislava is having difficulty getting EU funding after the rapid rise in its GDP per capita in recent years. As with many Central and Eastern European capitals, Bratislava’s wealth has climbed well above the EU average, meaning that the city no longer qualifies for EU
Hungary has decided against a plan to expand the country’s ownership of agricultural land in some of its neighbors like Slovakia, through a EUR 400 million fund. The government said the land purchases were designed to support the agricultural activities of ethnic Hungarian minorities in Hungary’s immediate neighbors.
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
In Slovakia, Tesco is now in the rear mirror for German supermarket chain Lidl, whose profits for 2020 (over EUR 126 million) have exceeded that of the British retailer, which has been the market leader in the country for some time. Lidl overtaking Tesco in Slovakia can be attributed to
If not partly or fully owned by the state, like utility and oil companies, the largest companies in the Visegrad 4 (“V4”) countries – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – are mostly foreign-owned and typically operate in the automotive, retail and electronics sectors. They are highly productive and prosperous, driving their
In Slovakia, a prototype flying car has completed a 35-minute flight between the country’s international airports in Nitra and Bratislava. The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol. Its creator, professor Stefan Klein, said it could fly about 1,000km, at a
Since Viktor Orbán became the prime minister of Hungary, cooperation among the “Visegrád 4” (V4) countries – Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland – has become a key ingredient of the Hungarian government’s rhetoric. Now, with Hungary taking over the presidency of the Visegrad Group, the country is keen to
Meeting in Warsaw, finance ministers from the “Visegrad 4” (V4) country grouping – Poland, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovakia – discussed post Covid-19 economic recovery plans and investments. They welcomed the global minimum tax proposed by the G7 but said they prefer an international solution in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
The European Commission has approved the economic Recovery and Resilience Plan submitted by Slovakia, which was among the first EU member states to present how it intends to spend EUR 6.3 billion in Union funds on things like education, healthcare and the environment. EC president Ursula von der Leyen
Shortly following the monumental changes to their governmental systems and economies, countries in Central & Eastern Europe did see their wages grow steadily – but over 30 years later it is apparent that average employee pay in the region can still be even half of that seen in the West of
Slovakia has been a great beneficiary of automotive industry expansion in recent decades. However, its high exposure to the global car market, and the ongoing far-reaching transformation of the industry may endanger the country’s outlook in this regard and reveal weaknesses in Slovakia’s economic growth model. “This is
Known as the “Airbnb of clean energy” and “brAIn,” the Slovak startup Fuergy is a Central European success story in the field of green technology. Fuergy revolutionizes energy consumption through its commitment to making renewables effective and affordable to everyone. The company has built a highly scalable hardware device and
Given the countries’ geographical proximity to one another, Slovak-Russian relations are a mixed bag, characterized by energy dependence on the one hand, and low-level trade on the other. Their luke-warm ties are underpinned by Bratislava’s sometimes firm, sometimes flexible stance toward Moscow. Slovakia was formerly a part of Czechoslovakia