Some Central and Eastern European leaders are concerned that France and Germany are setting the Brexit agenda and might push for 'no deal', the head of the ECR group in the European Parliament told EURACTIV Slovakia.
Ukraine should decrease its transit fees if it wants to undercut the business case for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bringing Russian gas directly to Germany, says Thierry Bros.
When it comes to migration and refugees, the Visegrad 4 governments speak with one voice: the EU should abandon any idea of a compulsory mechanism for refugee relocation. EURACTIV's network reports.
Despite progress in recent years, local circular economy efforts in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are still plagued by inefficient management, cheap landfilling and problematic reporting. EURACTIV's network reports.
Europe should engage in the Middle East by providing technical aid and promoting investment and programmes that enhance tolerance and peaceful coexistence, said Falah Mustafa Bakir in an interview.
Systemic segregation of Roma children in Slovakia's pre-schools and primary education has been around - and barely addressed - for many years. The lack of efforts on their inclusion has been highlighted by both human rights NGOs and the European Commission.
The European Commission’s analysis of clean air measures adopted at national level are at a “very advanced stage”, said Daniel Calleja Y Crespo, who recently came to Slovakia for the Clean Air Dialogue.
"What we have in Armenia is a fantastically working revolution," said Armen Grigoryan, one of the leaders of the “Reject Serzh“ movement, organising Armenia's ongoing nation-wide protests. EURACTIV.sk reports.
Unregulated electricity prices – and equal access to the grid for both large and small producers – are the only way to ensure higher share of renewables in the long run, says Latvian MEP Krišjānis Kariņš.
China has used the international economic crisis to elbow its way towards a dominant position on the global market. Its New Silk Road is seen as an attempt to create a massive, multi-national zone of economic and political influence, including in Central Europe. EURACTIV Poland/Czech Republic/Slovakia and Political Capital report.
Power grid interconnections and system flexibility are key to integrate bigger shares of renewables. A Franco-Irish research project aims to produce a roadmap to deploy EU power grids that can handle more than 50% of electricity from intermittent renewable sources.
Intermittent renewable electricity will need backup for at least the next 20 or 30 years, says Irish MEP Seán Kelly. As the least dirty among fossil fuels, natural gas is probably the most cost-effective and “preferred option,” he argues.
A push towards more intergovernmental decision making in the EU has never been a topic of discussion in the Visegrad format, state secretary for European affairs Ivan Korčok told EURACTIV Slovakia.
The roots of Euroscepticism among the Czechs go back 10 or 15 years and if Jiří Drahoš defeats the incumbent President Miloš Zeman in a runoff vote on 26-27 January, he will hardly be able to reverse the trend, political analyst Lubomír Kopeček told EURACTIV.
If Poland and Hungary are not censured for flouting EU rules, German Euroscepticism is set to rise, weakening public commitment to EU integration, warns foreign policy expert Cornelius Adebahr.
While Energy Union boss Maroš Šefčovič is making a case for a transition to geothermal energy in the Upper Nitra region of Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico still believes in the future of lignite mining. EURACTIV Slovakia reports.
The solution to the migration crisis is beyond the European Union borders and the EU must be prepared to talk to all relevant players in troubled countries and provide financial and logistical help, the former prime minister of Slovakia told EURACTIV.
Europe can decarbonise its industry thanks to a combination of natural gas, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage technology, Statoil executive Sonja Chirico Indrebø told EURACTIV Slovakia in an interview.
EDF and EirGrid, the leading French and Irish energy companies, have won €20 million under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme to develop ways of integrating large amounts of intermittent renewable energy sources into the electricity grid.
While EU countries step up efforts to phase out coal, the European Commission is preparing a new initiative to support regions in transition, says Dominique Ristori.
Some European countries are trying to enact restrictive policies and create a hostile atmosphere to discourage migrants and asylum seekers, blatantly ignoring EU and international law, Catherine Woollard told EURACTIV Slovakia reports.
Europe is not taking into account what is really taking place in Hungary -- and there is nothing wrong with the rule of law in the country -- because "the West really needs bad boys" to hold up as a negative example, Hungarian MEP Gyorgy Schopflin told EURACTIV Slovakia.
Local communities are at the forefront of the clean energy transition in Germany, with some villages relying 100% on renewables. EURACTIV Slovakia spoke to mayors there.
While Slovak president Andrej Kiska spoke in Strasburg about the need to counter Russian propaganda, the President of the Parliament Andrej Danko praised “pan-Slavic unity” in the Russian Duma. EURACTV Slovakia reports.
