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In today’s news from the Capitals:
BRATISLAVA | BUCHAREST | BUDAPEST | WARSAW
Gas transmission system operators (TSOs) from Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, and Poland agreed to a strategic partnership to develop the region’s hydrogen grid. According to the partnership agreement, the companies will also cooperate on decarbonisation, developing green gases, and exploring CO2’s possibilities. Read more.
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VIENNA
Austria’s education ministry under fire over crisis management. Austria’s Education Minister Martin Polaschek from the conservative party (ÖVP) will have to explain where his department went wrong in response to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and digitalisation. Read more.
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PARIS | BERLIN
Le Pen wants to stop military cooperation with Germany. French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said she would stop all joint arms programmes with Germany and instead propose a radical change in relations if elected on 24 April. Read more.
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THE HAGUE
Dutch MPs push to upgrade surveillance drones to ‘killer drones’. Most lawmakers in the Dutch lower house want the defence ministry to consider attaching bombs and missiles to the four new surveillance drones it recently purchased, the newspaper De Telegraaf reported. Read more.
UK AND IRELAND
LONDON
UK to outsource some asylum claims to Rwanda. The UK has agreed to send thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their applications processed as part of a migration deal that will be unveiled on Thursday. Read more.
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DUBLIN
Ireland to cut VAT as part of war-driven energy security strategy. The government will cut VAT for the next six months as part of its new National Energy Security Framework designed to structure the country’s response to the energy security crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. Read more.
NORDICS AND BALTICS
HELSINKI
Finland to decide on NATO membership ‘within weeks’, Sweden could follow suit. Finland will take a decision about whether to apply to join NATO in the next few weeks, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Wednesday (13 April), underlining a shift in security perspectives since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read more.
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STOCKHOLM
Social Democrats’ to hold decisive meeting on NATO. The party board of the Swedish Social Democrats will hold a decisive meeting on 24 May to discuss the issue of joining NATO, Aftonbladet reported. Read more.
EUROPE’S SOUTH
MADRID
Spain sees a ‘historic’ inflation rate as energy prices increase. Inflation in Spain has reached a “historic” level driven mainly by high energy prices, the country’s National Statistics Institute (INE) confirmed on Wednesday. Read more.
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ROME
Italy to receive first funds from NextGeneration EU. The first tranche of the Next Generation EU fund, which for Italy accounts for €21 billion of the €191 billion total, “is now on its way”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday. Read more.
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ATHENS
Greece says no more weapons for Ukraine. Athens is not planning to send more military equipment to Ukraine, Greek Defence Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said on Wednesday. Read more.
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LISBON
Zelenskyy to address Portuguese parliament. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address Portugal’s parliament, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Prime Minister Antonio Costa via videoconference on 21 April. Read more.
VISEGRAD
PRAGUE
Jourova: EU budget for Ukrainian refugees insufficient. European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová has acknowledged that the Commission’s plans to repurpose €17 billion in EU funds to help Ukrainian refugees are insufficient. Read more.
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WARSAW
Poles support Ukraine joining EU and NATO as soon as possible. According to up to 95% of Poles, Ukraine should join the EU and NATO, with 45% believing accession to both should happen as soon as possible, a poll published Wednesday has found. Read more.
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BUDAPEST
Opposition-led Budapest faces difficulties after Fidesz landslide. The opposition-led capital may have to ask the Hungarian government to approve a loan to plug the hole in its budget created by measures imposed by the executive during the pandemic. Read more.
NEWS FROM THE BALKANS
SOFIA
Bulgarian government may fall if it sends weapons to Ukraine. If the parliament decides to send weapons to Ukraine, the pro-Russian Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) has warned it will leave the ruling coalition, meaning the government will lose its parliamentary majority and likely fall at a time of severe geopolitical crisis. Read more.
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ZAGREB
Zagreb confirms fallen drone contained aerial bomb but no TNT. The unmanned aerial vehicle that crashed in Zagreb on 10 March was armed with an aviation bomb that exploded on impact but did not contain military explosives like trinitrotoluene (TNT), officials from the Zagreb County Prosecutor’s Office told a news conference on Wednesday. Read more.
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BELGRADE | PARIS
Belgrade hosts first French-Serbian innovation forum. The First French-Serbian Innovation Forum opened in Belgrade on Wednesday with the message that French-Serbian cooperation in science and innovation has great potential. Read more.
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Serbian company NIS sees potential takeover by Azerbaijani SOCAR Company. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is interested in buying out a controlling stake in oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) and has been in contact with NIS’ majority owner, Russian state company Gazprom Neft, and the Serbian government, the Demostat.rs website has reported. Read more.
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SARAJEVO
Armoured vehicle secures premises of Republika Srpska government building. A ‘Despot’ armoured vehicle was parked in front of Republika Srpska’s government building in Banja Luka Wednesday following information that the safety of Serb member of BiH’s tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, was in jeopardy. Read more.
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SKOPJE
North Macedonia Central bank raises key rate by 0.25%. The latest developments in the international and domestic financial markets and national economic indicators were reviewed at a regular session of the Operational Monetary Policy Committee of the National Bank on Tuesday. Read more.
Zaev: Russia’s violence shows Prespa deal’s significance. Former Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev defended the 2018 name-change deal between Greece and North Macedonia, saying its practical significance is not visible in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Read more.
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TIRANA | BUDAPEST
Hungarian state de facto owns majority of Albania’s telecoms sector. The Hungarian state has become a shareholder in Albania’s two top telecommunications companies, ALBtelecom and ONE, as regulators ignore fears of a duopoly. Read more.
AGENDA:
- EU: ECB holds press conference on eurozone monetary policy in Frankfurt.
- Estonia: Energy CommissionerKadri Simson meets members of the foreign affairs committee of the Estonian parliament.
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[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski, Sarantis Michalopoulos, Daniel Eck, Benjamin Fox, Zoran Radosavljevic, Alice Taylor, Sofia Stuart Leeson]
Source: euractiv.com
