For years, Serbia’s balancing act between Moscow and Brussels has defined its foreign policy. Now, newly surfaced corporate and financial records suggest that the Kremlin found an unexpected instrument to pull those political strings through one of the Balkans’ best-known businessmen, Dragan Šolak. According to multiple intelligence-grade assessments reviewed by EU Political Report, Swiss lawyer…
Photo by Ozodbek Erkinov on Unsplash According to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Uzbekistan should be added to the U.S. State Department’s Special Watch List for engaging in systematic violations of religious freedom. The recommendation comes in the commission’s latest reporting, which highlights an array of laws and administrative practices that it says punish…
Photo by Adrien Wodey on Unsplash In announcing the latest EU package of sanctions against Russia, Kaja Kallas High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and chair of the Foreign Affairs Council said: “The EU just approved one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date. Each sanction weakens Russia’s ability to wage…
Photo by Tayla Kohler on Unsplash The North Atlantic Council says it strongly condemns Russia’s malicious cyber activities. It says these constitute a threat to Allied security. The council issued a statement which says, “We stand in solidarity and recognise that Estonia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States have recently attributed malicious cyber…
May 31 is marked in Kazakhstan as the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Political Repression and Famine. Between the 1920s and 1950s, over 100,000 people in Kazakhstan were convicted on political grounds, with tens of thousands executed. More than 1.5 million Kazakhs perished during the forced collectivisation and famines of the 1930s, with some…
Photo by Roger Starnes on Unsplash The EU parliament’s International Trade Committee has approved a 50% increase in tariffs on certain Russian and Belarusian agricultural goods to further reduce EU dependency. MEPs on Thursday backed a Commission proposal to increase EU tariffs by 50% on those agricultural products from Russia and Belarus that are still…
Photo by Anil Sharma on Unsplash The quality of the maps used to assess deforestation has been assessed for the first time. It also assesses tree planting (reforestation/agroforestry), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removal monitoring. The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) study supports cocoa companies who rely on these sources to meet regulatory compliance and…
Photo by Shawn on Unsplash Climate and meteorological institutions have declared Europe the fastest warming continent, with 2024 the warmest year on record. The new European State of the Climate 2024 report, released by the Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization, paints a stark picture. It says 2024 saw a record 335…
Photo by Matheus Frade on Unsplash MEPs have demanded dedicated EU funding to strengthen infrastructure, connectivity and resilience across the Three Seas region, a forum of thirteen states, in the European Union, running along a north–south axis from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and Black Seas in Central and Eastern Europe. This comes just…
Photo by Eduard Delputte on Unsplash EU funding granted to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) suffers from a lack of transparency, according to a new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA). Despite improvements, information on EU funding awarded to NGOs that are active in the bloc’s internal policies remains inaccurate and incomplete. The European Commission…
