Construction material prices hikes threaten EU projects in Slovakia

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EDITOR’S TAKE

Who can bring Poland out of isolation? Poland is becoming increasingly isolated. Initially, Warsaw bet on Donald Trump, but now it is Joe Biden leading the US. It antagonised EU institutions and member states at a time when Visegrad’s cohesion was weakening. The PiS government has been digging a deep hole, from which it will be difficult to get out. Read more.

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In today’s news from the Capitals:

BRATISLAVA

Several big infrastructure projects in Slovakia, funded by the EU’s 2014-2020 programming period, are at risk due to the rapid rise of construction material prices. Read more.

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EU INSTITUTIONS

Farmers see chances in carbon farming but must be market-led. Agriculture stakeholders see a shift towards carbon farming in the European Union positively but emphasise that details over financial incentives for EU farmers must be determined for its proper rollout. Read more.

EU PRESIDENCY

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VIENNA

​​Austrian MEP Karas wants to be EU Parliament’s next president. Austrian MEP Othmar Karas announced his bid to become the European Parliament’s next president on Tuesday. While the conservative ÖVP has already said it will back his candidacy, it remains to be seen who else he can convince within the European People’s Party (EPP) group.  Read more.

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BERLIN

EU Council chief chimes in on negotiations in Berlin. European Council President Charles Michel met with the leaders of the negotiating parties in Berlin as 300 Social Democrats, Greens, and liberal politicians continue to negotiate a “traffic light” coalition. Read more.

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PARIS

Macron: health pass for over 65s conditioned on a third dose of vaccine. In his ninth address to the nation since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis on Tuesday (9 November) evening, President Emmanuel Macron called on unvaccinated citizens to show solidarity by getting the vaccine. Macron also announced that from 15 December, a third injection would be necessary for all those over 65 to extend the validity of their COVID passes. Read more.

UK AND IRELAND

LONDON.

Return of the dirty man of Europe? The UK government’s Environment Bill, which begins the job of unpicking pieces of EU environmental legislation and setting new post Brexit standards, was finally approved by lawmakers on Tuesday, following a lengthy battle over the amount of sewage released into rivers.

The House of Lords had proposed putting a legal duty on water firms to reduce untreated sewage discharges, only for the House of Commons, where the Conservative government has a large majority, to reject the provision.

The bill has now been approved after the government agreed to a compromise but Green peer Jenny Jones argued that the move could lead to the UK returning to “the 1970s version of ourselves as the dirty man of Europe” when the UK had some of the dirtiest beaches and waterways on the continent. (Benjamin Fox| EURACTIV.com)

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DUBLIN 

Ireland’s new transport strategy pushes measures back by 20 years. A new strategy set out by Ireland’s National Transport Authority (NTA) has pushed some planned measures back by 20 years and detailed an extra €25 billion over the same period. Read more.

NORDICS AND BALTICS

HELSINKI

Finnish universities to receive guidelines on how to deal with China. As the EU is preparing recommendations on cooperating safely with Chinese partners, Finnish authorities are already drawing up their own guidelines for universities and the scientific community. Read more.

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VILNIUS

Lithuania declares state of emergency on border with Belarus. Lithuanian parliament decided on Tuesday (9 November) to declare a state of emergency on its border region with Belarus. It comes into effect on Wednesday and marks the first time the provision has been used in the country since independence. Read more. 

EUROPE’S SOUTH

ROME

Discussion over Italy’s Five Star Movement joining S&D heats up. Democratic Party secretary Enrico Letta will go to Brussels on Thursday to discuss the possibility of the Five Star Movement (5SM) joining the socialist S&D group. Still, it remains uncertain whether 5SM vice-president Fabio Massimo Castaldo will keep his post after the European Parliament’s internal elections for its new president and vice-presidents in January 2022. Read more.

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MADRID

Sanchez starts second half of his term confident of a robust coalition until 2023 elections. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will start the second half of his term on Wednesday (10 November), confident in the approval of the 2022 budget, a full exit of the COVID-19 crisis, and with optimism in the future of the coalition government with left-wing Unidas Podemos (United We Can) until the end of 2023. Read more.

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LISBON

8% more businesses created in Portugal in 2021. In Portugal, 34,466 companies were created so far in 2021, an increase of 8.2% on the previous year. According to the Informa D&B Barometer, figures are still 18.4% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Read more.

VISEGRAD 

WARSAW

Duda: All Polish politicians should feel responsible for border situation. “I appeal to all Polish politicians to feel responsible for the situation on the border since the issue is too serious to use it for propaganda reasons, to make politics on it, to wage a political fight”, President Andrzej Duda said after a meeting at the National Security Bureau. Read more.

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PRAGUE

Czech conservative leader asked to form the new government. Czech President Miloš Zeman on Tuesday asked conservative leader Petr Fiala (Civic Democrats/ECR) to form the country’s new government. Read more.

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BUDAPEST

Stunned analysts predict inflation above 7% in Hungary. Surprised by Tuesday’s (9 November) announcement that Hungary’s inflation hit 6.5% in October, experts predict the next six months could bring even higher inflation still as well as sizable central bank rate hikes, Telex reported. Read more.

NEWS FROM THE BALKANS

SOFIA

Bulgaria to issue COVID green certificate to people with antibodies. Bulgarian authorities have surrendered to the demands of the restaurant industry and announced that a green certificate would be issued for people with large amounts of COVID-19 antibodies. The EU Commission has announced that there is not enough data to allow antibodies to justify a European green certificate, but states are free to develop their own solutions. Read more.

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BELGRADE 

US Embassy in Serbia: Biden’s Summit for Democracy could not include all partners. US President Joseph Biden’s Summit for Democracy initiative could not include all of Washington’s partners, while the objective was to gather a regional and social-economically diverse group of countries and judicial instances, Beta news agency was told by the US Embassy in Belgrade. Read more.

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SARAJEVO 

Opposition leader in Republika Srpska wants dialogue, not crisis. Opposition parties in the Republika Srpska entity will not follow Milorad Dodik’s political ideas because they consider he is undermining peace in all of BiH, opposition leader Mirko Šarović said after a meeting with US special envoy Gabriel Escobar. Read more.

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SKOPJE

North Macedonia government declares energy crisis. The government declared a 30-day energy crisis starting Tuesday (9 November) at the request of the Commission monitoring the electricity supply within the economy ministry, Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi told a press conference. Read more.

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PRISTINA 

Kosovo Liberation Army victims call Hague-based court ‘biased’. The heads of the Kosovo Liberation Army Veterans Association said the Hague-based court set up to try those accused of war crimes is “biased”. Read more.

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TIRANA

Albania to fight drugs by satellite and drone. Satellites and drones will monitor what is happening in Albania, as well as help fight crime, according to an announcement on Tuesday from Prime Minister Edi Rama, exit.al/en reports. Read more.

Ex-interior minister to be retried for drug trafficking. Ex- interior minister Samimir Tahiri will be retried after being given a prison sentence of three years and four months for abuse of office.

Initially charged with drug trafficking, participation in a structured criminal organisation, and criminal activity, he was acquitted of all three. He was then found guilty of abuse of office, a charge he had not been initially indicted for. On Tuesday (9 November), a ruling said the court violated the rules by sentencing him on a different charge for which he was not investigated. (Alice Taylor | Exit.al/en)

AGENDA:

• EU: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets Biden in Washington / EU-Arctic Forum in Brussels with participation of EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell and Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius / European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič will brief diplomats on the state of play in the ongoing negotiations on the Northern Ireland protocol / UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi addresses European Parliament.
• Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel meets Portuguese and Latvian counterparts in Meseberg.
• France: President Emmanuel Macron holds talks with US VP Kamala Harris / Former president Francois Hollande testifies at 2015 Paris attacks trial.
• Poland: European Council President Charles Michel visits Poland to discuss the situation at the Polish-Belarusian border with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
• Greece: Greek ferries go on 48-hour strike.
• Croatia: Parliament continues its session with a debate on amendments to the Courts Act.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson holds videoconference with Security Minister Selmo Cikotić. 
• North Macedonia: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte visits Skopje to talk enlargement.

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[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Alexandra Brzozowski, Daniel Eck, Benjamin Fox, Zoran Radosavljevic, Alice Taylor]

Read more with Euractiv

Lithuania declares state of emergency on border with Belarus

The Lithuanian parliament decided on Tuesday (9 November) to declare a state of emergency at its border region with Belarus, a first since the country declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990.