It’s unclear whether Russia has carried through with the threat, Euronews reported on Saturday. Gazprom is sending gas to Europe via Ukraine at normal levels, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. Nehammer said on Friday that Austria has a secure supply of alternative fuel and that “no one will freeze this winter, no home will be cold.” … Read more
Former Slovak leader Igor Matovič didn’t mince words in deploring an appearance by the country’s current Prime Minister Robert Fico on Russia’s state-owned Rossiya 1 TV channel on Wednesday. “What a horrible treacherous ferret,” said Matovič, who served as the country’s prime minister between 2020 and 2021, in a post on Facebook. The pro-Russian Slovak … Read more
Fico’s comments contrast sharply with the stance of Mark Rutte, NATO’s new secretary-general, who said Thursday that “Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever before, and will continue on this path until you become a member of our alliance.” Under NATO’s 1949 founding treaty, decisions on enlargement are made “by unanimous agreement,” meaning that Fico’s … Read more
Shortly after his re-election last year, Prime Minister Robert Fico backed the initiative by the far-right Slovak National Party (SNS), one of the coalition members, to create a commission investigating pandemic measures. “The Slovak public simply needs an answer about the vaccination … why people were vaccinated with various experimental vaccines without any tests, why … Read more
In a non-binding vote in July, only Cyprus, Hungary, Malta and Slovakia voted against the measures, which are meant to counter unfair Chinese state subsidies for its EV sector. | Adek Berry/AFP via Getty Images The surprise German nein might sway other EU countries to follow suit, though Berlin would need to convince 13 other … Read more
Slovak government plans to increase the country’s value-added tax (VAT) rate on books from 10 percent to 23 percent have drawn criticism from the country’s publishers, political opposition and university students. “Books, according to our analysis, are mostly purchased by wealthier segments of the population, so they will be taxed at the [highest VAT] rate,” … Read more
Florence, Dublin, Venice, Milan, Dubrovnik. The consensus? They’re top city-break destinations. Worthy of crossing the globe to visit. But try telling that to the travellers on Reddit contributing to a thread about Europe’s worst cities. They hurled critiques at the aforementioned destinations and more besides in response to poster ‘friendlyflee’ asking: ‘What cities in Europe are … Read more
After a ‘will she, won’t she’ few days, Ursula von der Leyen is on Tuesday set to unveil her top team at the European Commission. But who will get which portfolio? Stay with POLITICO for updates on the big announcement and for instant analysis of what it all means. Read original article here Denial of … Read more
The deadline for putting forward names for the next European Commission is the end of August. With that date approaching fast, and now that Ursula von der Leyen is back from her summer holiday in Germany, here are the nominees so far (remember that all of them, except for von der Leyen herself, need to … Read more
Change of direction After surviving the illiberal reign of Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar in the 1990s, Slovakia elected a pro-Western government in 1998, putting itself back on track for NATO and EU membership, which it secured in 2002 and 2004 respectively. But after eight years of relentless reforms and creeping corruption, the electorate turned in … Read more
