Новости за 10.04.2018

The European Union is on course to spectacularly miss a self-imposed road safety target, with 25,300 people killed on EU roads in 2017.

Two days after Orban's landslide victory, a former ally, now foe tycoon shuts down the largest opposition daily in a media landscape dominated by state-aligned outlets.

Volkswagen group CEO Matthias Mueller will soon leave his position and will be replaced by the brand's chief Herbert Diess, the German automaker announced on Tuesday. The company said that the move was due to a change in the management structure and that it has nothing to do with the Dieselgate scandal. Its shares increased by over 4 percent on the Frankfurt stock exchange after the news.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project between Russia and Germany was "not possible without clarity" about Ukraine's role as a transit country between Russia and Europe. "We cannot allow that, with Nord Stream 2, Ukraine would have no significance at all any more with regard to gas transit," she said after meeting Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.

Cybersecurity is a core element of Europe's strategy to become a global leader in digital technologies and a secure place for its citizens, write EU commissioner Jyrki Katainen and expert Jarno Limnell.

The European Commission and the European Investment Fund launched on Tuesday VentureEU, a pan-European venture capital programme to boost public and private investment for start-ups. With a participation of €410 million in six existing funds, the EU aims to help raising €2.1 billion, which would trigger an estimated €6.5 billion of new investment across Europe - doubling the amount invested in 2016, compared to €39.4 billion in the US.

Hungary's 80-year old broadsheet daily, Magyar Nemzet will shut down operations from Wednesday, its publisher said. One of two opposition daily newspapers, Magyar Nemzet is owned by Lajos Simicska, former ally, now opponent of prime minister Viktor Orban, who won a third consecutive term on Sunday by a landslide. The publisher's Lanchid Radio will also shut down, and its tv station HirTV will undergo restructuring.

Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban said at a press conference he had invited European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to Hungary and that Juncker will travel to Budapest "within one or two weeks". Juncker called Orban on Tuesday to congratulate him on his win in Sunday's general election. The commission has launched several probes into Hungarian laws over concerns they breach EU rules and values.

The EU's Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that France was within its rights when it banned the ridesharing application UberPop, and when it fined the app's operator, Uber, €800,000. Uber had challenged the French law, saying that France should have asked the European Commission permission for its adoption. The court noted such notification was only required for laws on information society companies, which Uber is not.

Politicians frome the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) who want to run for lead candidate for next year's European elections will have to declare themselves between 6 September and 17 October, the party's political assembly decided on Monday. The candidate, who will be the candidate for president of the European Commission, will be chosen at the EPP congress in Helsinki on 8 November.

More than a thousand fishing boats went on strike on Monday in protest against what they called overburdening laws introduced by their government to ensure Thai fishing operators comply with EU regulations. The European Union gave Thailand a 'yellow card', or a final warning, in 2015 for its failure to effectively stop illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) and threatened to stop importing of processed seafood to Europe.

Euro-area governments should focus on ensuring that the bloc can withstand a future crisis and not get hung up on a June deadline to reform the single currency, Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstrahas has told Bloomberg in an interview. European Council president Donald Tusk has set a June target to agree the first euro-zone reforms, using momentum from supportive governments in Paris and Berlin to make the politically difficult decisions.

The Czech communist party is ready to negotiate forming government with billionaire businessman and prime minister Andrej Babis, communist party chairman Vojtech Filip said after talks between Babis and the social democrats broke down last week. Thousands of Czechs rallied on Monday in protest, calling for the resignation of Babis, who is battling police charges over alleged fraud and rules in a care-taker position without parliamentary backing for his government.

Low-cost terror attacks that are difficult to prevent remain a threat for years to come given the number of radicalised Islamic militants in Europe, expert says.

Post-Brexit hard borders could undermine the past 20 years of peace in Ireland, architects of the Good Friday Agreement have warned.

Post-Brexit hard borders could undermine the past 20 years of peace in Ireland, architects of the Good Friday Agreement have warned.

Europe is trying to kick its addiction to plastic, so businesses are on the hunt for alternatives. Bioplastics could replace 60 percent of plastic packaging on the market, but the switch is far from straightforward.