Poland and Hungary Vie for Elusive EU Funds

Poland and Hungary look to beat each other to the post for EU funds while media space is under pressure across the region after Slovakia’s public broadcaster news director gets dismissed and Russian propaganda launches RT Balkan service.

This week on Visegrad Insight:

• Martin Ehl explores Zsuzsanna Szelényi’s insider perspective of how the Viktor Orbán regime rose to power, its battles with Brussels and why they may get EU funds.
• Malina Mindrutescu analyses why Romanians are falling out of love with democracy and into the arms of autocracy.
• Radu Stochita looks into why some see plagiarism as a minor issue, but faults in the academic system lead in fact to an erosion of democracy.

EU/REGIONAL

• Missile hits Poland killing two. AP reported an explosion in grain dryers in the village of Przewodów near the Ukrainian border was caused by missiles, citing a US intelligence officer. The Polish government conveyed the National Security Bureau shortly afterwards. The ongoing investigation points to the landing of fragments of a Ukrainian defence missile intercepting a Russian striking missile. (Read more here.)
• NATO meetings on the Przewodów explosion. Poland is a key NATO country in the region and the incident comes as Ukraine came under intensive fire from Russian missiles following the Russian retreat from Kherson to the east bank of Dnieper. (Read more on Poland’s role in NATO.)
• COP 27 sees a historic deal agreed to pay poorer nations for damages caused by climate change, but scientists and observers warn that prospects of cutting down on emissions to pre-industrial levels continue to wane.
• Sweden says it has evidence that the NordStream pipelines explosions were sabotage. Swedish investigators found traces of explosives on site. Investigators did not point to the origin of explosive traces.
• Today, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is meeting her French counterpart Catherine Colonna but also President Emmanuel Macron in an effort to refocus Franco-German relations.
• The first floating terminal for LNG opened in Germany. The completion in just 194 days represents an unprecedented pace and underscores Germany’s rush to free itself from dependence on Russian energy imports.
• Amazon and other packaging retail companies could face shortages as a result of possible strikes ahead of Black Friday.
• EU ministers meeting on Friday 18 November prepared an agenda for the European Council meeting in December focusing on security and defence in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ministers also discussed the list of reforms presented by Hungary as part of the procedures over rule of law conditionality.
• 19 November deadline for Hungary. The Fidesz-led government needs to have reported back to the EC on the implementation of the measures agreed upon under the conditionality procedure by 19 November. EC will assess the implementation of measures and could update proposals on suspended funding at one of the Commission College meetings between Nov 22-30.
• Visegrad 4 premiers are set to meet in Košice in eastern Slovakia, after the V4 parliamentary speakers meeting had to be cancelled as a result of the boycott of Hungary’s representatives, see more in-country sections.  
• The responsibility for the downing of MH17 will be borne by Russia as a state. “The transfer of Buk air defence systems to criminals is an obvious violation of international law, in particular the International Convention on Combating the Financing of Terrorism. The transportation of deadly weapons to the territory of Ukraine is one of the key pieces of evidence in the case of Ukraine’s lawsuit against the Russian Federation, which is currently being considered by the UN International Court of Justice,” the verdict reads.

Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant shelled again

UKRAINE