Visegrád Group

The state of the Czech environment is among the worst in the EU, and inferior to all of its Visegrad peers, according to the 2023 Prosperity Index, published on Tuesday. High greenhouse gas emissions, poor efficiency, drought and rising volumes of waste helped push the Czech environment down into 22nd place out of the 27 member states.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia wants to focus on capturing Donbass in the coming weeks.
The U.S. Treasury Department today imposed sanctions on the most prominent dark website Hydra, based in Russia and the cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, which it claims operates primarily from Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Ministry's website said.

However, it is still unclear whether the new Czech government - a centre-right coalition of five parties led by university professor Petr Fiala - will be truly devoted to and even equipped to deal with these challenging tasks, and what position it will take in the actual negotiations on these complex regional issues.

The Hungarian government is particularly worried about the security of the 130,000-strong Hungarian minority living in the Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathian region) of southwest Ukraine.

Bled – Developments in Afghanistan could be an opportunity to strengthen the EU, was one of the views presented at the former leaders’ panel at the Bled Strategic Forum on Wednesday, where the importance of EU enlargement to the Western Balkans and differences on European values in the EU were also highlighted.

Previously, Vui presented the Order of the Serbian Flag of the first degree to the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Pter Szijjrt, for special merits in developing and strengthening the cooperation and friendly relations between Serbia and Hungary.

"We declare the taking of all possible measures - including those to be undertaken in cooperation with the Visegrad Group - in order to provide families with the best possible conditions for functioning," it concludes.

Ljubljana – Agriculture Minister Jože Podgoršek and the ministry’s state secretary Aleš Irgolič participated on Wednesday in a meeting of agriculture ministers of the Visegrad Group, plus Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. The meeting was dedicated to challenges facing farmers and the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy.

In the wake of the Japanese nuclear accident, Germany had swiftly announced that it would shutter all of its nuclear power plants by 2022. Its recent announcement suggests Berlin now plans to use its considerable weight to push others to follow suit.

In the context of the Polish Presidency of the Visegrad Group, the Delphi Economic Forum and the Polish Embassy in Athens are set to hold an open digital event on Monday titled "Strong V4 Group in a Strong Europe," with the participation of Greece's Alternate Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.