German munitions company Rheinmetall proclaimed its unit for armoured vehicles as Europe’s most advanced plant when it inaugurated the new factory in Zalaegerszeg, western Hungary, on Friday, 18 August. Amongst other military hardware, the high-tech facility will make the Lynx, the world’s most advanced infantry fighting vehicle (IFV)
Romania’s Finance Minister Marcel Bolos said he is introducing prudent spending measures to put the country on a development path, despite potential negative consequences at the ballot box, in a speech in Beclean, north Romania, on Friday 19 August. Bolos, a member of Marcel Ciolacu’s Social Democratic rotation
The emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are closing in on their Western neighbours thanks to the emergence of new technologies, and nowhere more so than Poland, according to Britain’s oldest independent research institute. CEE is likely to become a new centre of gravity of economic growth
Hungarian President Katalin Novak reiterated her country’s support for a peace deal with Russia in a speech at the opening ceremony of the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Saturday, 19 August. Novak, a close confidante of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said “in the next nine days,
FedEx Express, the world’s largest provider of express transportation services, has inaugurated another facility in Kielce, southern Poland, its sixth in the country. Since 2020, the company has initiated, modernized, or constructed 12 facilities across six countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In Poland alone, newly established facilities
Polish President Andrzej Duda this week set October 15 as the date for a general election that both sides are calling Poland’s most important since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Poland is an increasingly important player in EU relations, both economically and in terms of defence,
Poland and Czechia are the leading countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for offering temporary protection status to Ukrainian refugees, according to new figures released this week by Eurostat. According to the EU’s official statistics agency, at the end of June, Poland was giving 977,740 people temporary
The National Bank of Romania (BNR) revised upward, to 7.5% its inflation prognosis for the end of this year on Wednesday, 9 August. According to the data presented by the central bank’s governor Mugur Isarescu, inflation will be 4.4% at the end of 2024. Presenting the Quarterly
Foreign affairs parliamentary committee chairs from Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries including Czechia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are amongst the signatories of an open letter calling for more criticism of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s Kosovo policy. The letter to the EU and the US, seen by German
Slovenia and Austria were the worst hit countries by the severe floods that swept over Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the weekend. As thousands evacuated their homes and four died in Slovenia, the country asked for help from the EU and NATO. In Austria, one person died after falling
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia agreed on Thursday 3 August to decouple from Russia’s BRELL power grid by February 2025, in order to reach full energy independence from the Kremlin. The three countries in 2018 agreed to integrate into the EU electricity system by the end of 2025, as their
Emirates Telecommunication Group Company (e&) will buy a 50% plus one share in PPF Group’s telecommunications assets in Bulgaria (mobile operator Yettel Bulgaria), Hungary (Yettel Hungary), Serbia (Yettel Serbia) and Slovakia (O2 Slovakia). The United Arab Emirates-based telco holding company, formerly Etisalat, will pay EUR 2.15bn upfront
Only 6% of Ukrainian diesel imports come from Hungary, the head of Hungarian energy giant MOL said at a conference on Saturday, 29 July. MOL CEO Zsolt Hernadi was responding to a recent article by Netherlands daily Handelsblatt, which said MOL’s oil deliveries to Ukraine have doubled in the
Unlike its regional peers, the forint weakened massively this week, as the Hungarian National Bank (MNB) continued to unwind the emergency measures around Europe’s most inflated currency, Hungarian business website Portfolio wrote. Against the euro and the dollar, the domestic currency suffered a significant devaluation, 1.8% against the
Romania has signed a RON 562.61mn (EUR 106.64mn) construction contract for a road connecting the Autostrada Transilvania (A3) and the DN1 in Tureni, Cluj county, central Romania, Digi24.ro reported on Friday, 28 July. The expressway will include 7 bridges and viaducts, with the longest being a 258-metre
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala dismissed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s claim over the weekend that Czechia has “changed sides” regarding the EU, emphasising the importance of regional cooperation, rather than “absurd stigmas”. Speaking at the 32nd Baile Tusnad “Summer University” Orban had said Czechia is now aligned with
The opening of the Braila road suspension bridge puts Romania into the category of countries with leading road infrastructure, Romanian Road Infrastructure Administration Director Cristian Pistol told media at its inauguration ceremony, Digi24.ro reports. The EUR 700mn project received EUR 363mn from the EU’s Cohesion Policy funds. According
The top 11 inflation rates in the EU were in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries in June 2023, according to new data figures published by Eurostat, the EU’s official statistics office. All of the EU member states in CEE registered inflation over the EU average of 6.4%
Payment management platform Payhawk – Bulgaria’s only unicorn – has opened a new office in Vilnius, Lithuania, it announced on Monday, 17 July. Established in 2018, Payhawk currently serves clients in 32 countries and offers its platform to businesses across the European Economic Area (EEA), the UK and the US. With
Increased attention has been drawn to the eastern Mediterranean region by energy companies and European governments in recent weeks, Financial Mirror wrote in an analysis of gas supply to Europe in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February. Despite reduced Russian gas flow due to the conflict
The leaders of Ukraine and Lithuania were left frustrated at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, despite NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s assertion that “there has never been stronger language for membership in NATO”. Although a communiqué issued after the two-day event proclaimed that “Ukraine’s
National Bank of Romania (BNR) chief economist Valentin Lazea warned that the country’s ballooning deficit could make it “the next candidate for IMF assistance and possible suspension of EU funds”. Lazea wrote that Romania risks achieving an unwanted economic precedent in the EU: “a country that committed to reducing
EU members agreed to tighten sustainability regulations for batteries, with an almost unanimous vote at the Council of the EU, on Monday 10 July. The Council tweeted that it “has adopted today new rules that will, for the first time ever, cover the whole lifecycle of batteries. The goal is
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda held a joint press conference on Monday, 10 July, the day before the start of the NATO meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, with 48 delegations of some 2,400 people, including 40 heads of state and 150 leading officials, due to
Europe will require annual investments of more than EUR 700bn (USD 762.44bn) to meet its energy transition goals to combat climate change, a senior European Commission (EC) official said on Thursday, 6 July. European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic made the comments as the EC released the 2023 Strategic