Slovak Government Faces No Confidence Test

Slovakia could see its government fall this week leaving large parts of Slovak society exposed to an energy crisis and disenfranchisement with politics. Belarus is getting submerged under Russian command, and the EU embargo on crude oil imports from Russia kicks in.  

This week on Visegrad Insight:

• Vitaly Portnikov writes how mutually beneficial Hungary and Ukraine’s relationship can be if both countries can find common ground.
• Jan Farfal and Vukan Marković break down why Serbia leans towards Russia when the EU shows weakness.
• Christine Karelska analyses whether the Qatari World Cup is a chance for democracy or realpolitik.
• Conference: Today, 5 December, in Berlin. Visegrad Insight will host a an event on our latest report: War and the Future of Europe. The panel discussion will include Goran Buldioski, Michael Meyer-Resende, Zsuzsanna Végh and Wojciech Przybylski, moderated by Philipp Fritz. For more information and registration, click here.
• Conference: How Does this War End for Europe? 6-9 December. Join our exclusive, week-long foresight discussion events with multiple conference panels all being held online. For more information on the panels, guest speakers and how to register, click here.

EU/REGIONAL

• EU agreement on the maximum price of USD 60/barrel. The mechanism of reducing the price every two months by 5 per cent below the market value should also be together with the 5 December embargo on imports and transfers of Russian crude oil.
• Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia have an exemption from the embargo due to their critical dependency on Russian oil.
• The EU Economic and Financial Affairs Council will meet on 6 December. €18 billion aid package for Ukraine will be high on the agenda. Hungary’s negative stance on the package, voiced in advance by Viktor Orbán, could be a tipping point for Poland to take a more critical stance towards Hungary over breaches of the rule of law.
• US-EU Trade and Technology Council convenes on 5 December. A new AI roadmap prioritising security and risk management is expected to be released.
• The OSCE stated that Russia’s war threatens the organisation’s existence, under current regulations the consensus vote means you cannot remove a country with two voting against the motion such as Russia and Belarus. 
• EU interior ministers to meet on 8 December and are expected to make decisions on Bulgaria’s, Croatia’s and Romania’s Schengen membership.
• €378K European Commission’s Metaverse is a total fiasco. Only five people showed up for the first event at the Metaversum created by the EC.
• The Musk-EU war has just begun. The European Union has warned Twitter’s owner that if he does not comply with content moderation regulations, his platform could face heavy fines or be banned from the EU.
• Facebook fined for big data leak by an Irish court. 

Liberation of Ukraine will require military means

UKRAINE