Czechia

Brussels – The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Slovenian maker of prefabricated construction elements Trimo by the Irish Kingspan Group. It is concerned that the transaction may reduce competition and lead to price increases.

The Slovak-born Babis is well aware that a delivery of Sputnik V just helped depose the prime minister of his mother country, but he's also eyeing his rapidly dwindling popularity ahead of the Czech elections in October and the likelihood that he'll have to rely on Zeman's Machiavellian manoeuvres if he wants to head the next government.

Brussels – Slovenia will get its pro rata share from a package of 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine whose delivery has been pushed forward from the first to the second quarter of the year. Under the plan agreed last evening by EU member states, this means approximately 47,000 doses of the vaccine.

In the letter - leaked to BIRN and published below in its entirety for the first time - that was sent last year to at least four governments in the region (Croatia, Czechia, Slovakia and Slovenia), the Polish Justice Ministry sets out its vision over five pages for an alternative to the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, to giv

The story of a unique friendship between a fisherman and a stork is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

For the past 10 years, Adem Yılmaz, 68, meets up with a white stork in a village called Eskikaraağaç in Turkey's northwestern province of Bursa's Karacabey district.

Prague has been asking Warsaw to deal with the mine, which sits on the tri-border between Poland, Czechia and Germany, for several years, citing its heavy environmental impact. In particular, Turow, which feeds Poland's heavy addiction to coal for power production, has degraded drinking water in Czechia's northern Liberec Region. There is also concern over air and noise pollution.

A scientist in Turkey's Isparta province aims to reintroduce the dune cricket, which was thought to be extinct 20 years ago, to the world. 

Brdo pri Kranju – Foreign Minister Anže Logar will host a meeting of the Central 5 group of countries at Brdo estate on Monday to set out the priorities of Slovenia’s presidency of the Council of the EU to his counterparts from Austria, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia.

Ljubljana – The parliamentary Commission for Oversight of Public Finances debated Friday the selection of Slovakia’s Skytoll for an e-tolling system for cars. While the opposition alleged irregularities, motorway company DARS and the Infrastructure Ministry rejected any impropriety. The MPs asked the anti-graft commission to look into the tender.

US-based NuScale Power said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear power plant (NPP) on the possible deployment of NuScale's small modular reactor (SMR) technology at the Bulgarian plant.