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Economy

Emerging Europe is failing to protect citizens from air pollution

Governments across emerging Europe are failing to protect their citizens from toxic air pollution, with most Europeans still breathing filthy air in their cities, according to new data.Better air quality has led to a significant reduction of premature deaths over the past decade in Europe, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency…

Covid-19 is accentuating the need to bridge digital divides

We are at a turning point in the digital transformation, according to a new report from the OECD.Improved internet connectivity and skills have helped many countries to cope with the health and economic crisis from Covid-19. Yet the pandemic has raised the bar for the digital transition and underscores the need to close the digital…

What a Biden administration means for Eastern Europe

The world can look forward to four years of measured, hands-on diplomacy.I encountered Senator Joe Biden for the first time at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in the Russell Building in 2007. Ever since, I thought of Biden as the classical foreign policy Democrat – resounding, multi-region, global American presence and engagement, combined with…

Bulgaria’s North Macedonia U-turn

Back in 2018, many saw Bulgaria’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union as a means of providing impetus to the European integration of the Western Balkans. The recent reignition of a decades-old dispute with North Macedonia over language and identity however, and the decision in November to block the start that country’s EU…

Explainer: The EU’s Kosovo awkward squad

Israel’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Kosovo has once again put the spotlight on the five EU countries which refuse to recognise the former province of Serbia as an independent state. We explain the reasons behind their refusal.The Austrian MEP Lukas Mandl responded this week to the news that Israel would recognise Kosovo as…

Kosovo becomes first European country to open Jerusalem embassy

Turkey has led international condemnation of Kosovo’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem. For the Balkan state, however, Israeli recognition of its independence is more important than appeasing its erstwhile allies.Kosovo has officially opened an embassy in the city of Jerusalem, the first European and Muslim-majority country to do so.The event was marked with…