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• The Hydrogen4EU event video ‘Chartering pathways to enable net zero – what role for hydrogen?‘ which took part in media partnership with EURACTIV.
• The interview with Catalan released leader who said the Catalan issue requires a ‘multilateral solution’.

Logar: Article 7 hearings on Slovenian EU presidency agenda. On behalf of the Council of the EU, Slovenian Foreign Minister Anže Logar told the European Parliament on Wednesday that hearings under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union regarding Poland and Hungary were on the agenda of Slovenia’s EU presidency as many MEPs were critical of the stalling of sanctions procedures in question. Read more.

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BERLIN

State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs Marco Wanderwitz, who faced criticism in the past over his remarks that East Germans were unable to acclimatise to living in a democracy, released a report on the progress of the formerly communist federal states on Wednesday. Read more.

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PARIS

French government calls for ‘massive’ vaccination as cases surge again. “After several months of decline, the epidemic is once again gaining ground in our country”, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal told the press after the weekly Council of ministers on Wednesday, adding that only “massive” vaccination could prevent a fourth wave from hitting the country. Read more.

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THE HAGUE

Dutch journalist shooting an ‘attack on our values’. EU officials on Wednesday condemned the shooting of Dutch crime reporter Peter R. de Vries, who was fighting for his life after the attack in central Amsterdam. Read more.

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VILNIUS

Lithuania’s foreign ministry has ordered the Belarusian embassy in Vilnius to cut its diplomatic staff to one in response to a similar action by the Minsk government earlier this week. Read more.

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STOCKHOLM

Sweden’s Löfven re-elected PM in narrow parliament vote. Swedish Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven was re-elected as prime minister by parliament on Wednesday, ending weeks of political turmoil since his resignation last month. Read more.

DUBLIN 

Irish Transport Minister: Fully vaccinated UK travellers won’t have to quarantine. Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has said travel from the UK to Ireland will be much easier for fully vaccinated people as they will not have to quarantine from 19 July, RTE news has reported. Read more.

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ATHENS

A Greek prosecutor has decided to investigate press reports suggesting that four basketball players of Turkish Fenerbahçe who had fever were allowed to enter Greece bypassing COVID-19 controls upon request of Deputy Minister for Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias. Read more.

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ROME

Eurostat: Italian GDP will grow by 5% in 2021. Italy’s economic growth released Wednesday by survey Eurostat is estimated to be “significantly higher than that of the spring”, forecasting a rise in GDP from + 4.2% to + 5%. Read more.

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MADRID

Spanish police arrest suspects after fatal beating. Spanish police have arrested three people over their alleged involvement in the killing of a 24-year-old man named Samuel, who was beaten to death in the early hours of last Saturday near a nightclub, EURACTIV’s partner EFE reports. 

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LISBON

Survey shows Portuguese citizens agree with voluntary military service and compulsory service. Around 60% of the Portuguese population agrees with voluntary military service and 40% favours the return of compulsory service, a percentage that increases in groups over 45 years old, indicates a study by the National Defence Institute. Read more.

In other news, the Portuguese government said it can’t give local authorities guidance on data protection. The minister of state modernisation Alexandra Leitão said in parliament on Wednesday that it was not up to the government to give guidance to local authorities on the General on Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), assuming the “gravity” of the case of Lisbon City Council. Read more.

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BRATISLAVA

The Slovak constitutional court has decided a referendum on whether to hold snap elections is not in compliance with the constitution and therefore cannot take place, despite the opposition parties collecting over 524,000 signatures, surpassing the 350,000 signatures threshold. Read more.

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BUDAPEST 

Hungarian government imposed fine on LGBTQI+ friendly fairy tale book. Government authorities of the capital county imposed nearly €700 worth of a fine on the distributor of a storybook depicting rainbow families, published by the Rainbow Families Foundation. Read more.

The news comes as Hungary on Wednesday rejected a demand from the European Commission and many EU lawmakers to repeal new legislation banning schools from using materials deemed to promote homosexuality.

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PRAGUE | BRATISLAVA

Slovakia to reopen border crossings with Czechia. Czech citizens will be able again to cross the border with Slovakia after the country decided to reverse its controversial decision to close several border crossings to try and curb the spread of COVID-19 on Monday. Read more.

SOFIA

Bulgaria sign deal with German electric car manufacturers. After the German giant Volkswagen refused to build a new plant in Bulgaria, a German startup specialising in electric cars has shown interest in investing €140 million in the country. Read more.

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BUCHAREST

Romanian set for largest growth in the EU.  Romania’s economy is expected to rise by 7.4% in 2021, the largest growth in the EU, according to the summer economic forecast presented on Wednesday by the European Commission. 

The forecast is improved by more than two percentage points compared with the spring forecast, released less than two months ago. The Commission said the much-improved estimation is due to the stronger-than-expected performance of the economy in the first quarter of this year. (Bogdan Neagu | EURACTIV.ro)

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ZAGREB

Low vaccination rate in Croatia prompts government intervention. The Croatian Public Health Institute (HZJZ) reported on Tuesday that just 37.3% of the total population, or 45% of the adult population had been vaccinated. ”  A nation that wants to be competitive, lucrative, gets vaccinated without thinking twice, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said. The prime minister raised Malta as an example, where 80% of the population had been vaccinated. Earlier, he indicated that the cabinet would prepare a legislative basis for making the provision of job-retention support conditional on vaccination. 

Unionists and employers emphasised that the government cannot hold workers and employers responsible but instead, it needs to legally regulate the problem regarding inoculating the population. Director of the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) Damir Zorić said that they can understand the state’s expectations and appeals. He believes that everyone should be vaccinated but that there is no legal instrument to compel citizens to do so. “The state has to make a decision and then we will be obliged to implement that decision,” said Zorić.  (Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)

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LJUBLJANA 

Slovenia passes stimulus package targeted at hospitality sector. The Slovenian parliament has passed another stimulus law designed to help businesses cope with the pandemic, with a €243 million package targeted at hospitality, tourism and the events industry. Read more.

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BELGRADE 

Serbian PM: Giving Belgrade Airport under concession good economic move. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic stated on Wednesday that the decision to give the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport under concession to the French Vinci Group was a good economic move and that, if that had not been the case, the airport would not have survived the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.

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PODGORICA 

Montenegro close to securing deal European, US banks on Chinese loan. Montenegro is weeks away from securing a deal to either swap or refinance with European and US banks nearly $1 billion in debt owed to China, and hopes to reduce the interest rate on the debt to below 1%, Economy Minister Jakov Milatović said. Read more.

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PRISTINA

Former Kosovo minister indicted for hiring firm to promote border changes. Kosovo’s Special Prosecution has filed an indictment against former European Integration Minister Dhurata Hoxha and four current and former officials of the ministry over a contract that saw budget money spent on a Paris-based PR company that promoted Kosovo’s “territorial modification” as a way to solve the Kosovo-Serbia dispute two years ago, Prishtina Insight reported. 

The deal would have seen some Serb-majority areas in the north of Kosovo joining Serbia, with Albanian-majority areas in southern Serbia going the other way. The border change option – which triggered sharp reactions both inside and outside Kosovo – was first raised by former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who is now in the Hague awaiting trial after the Specialist Prosecution filed an indictment against him and three other former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during Kosovo’s 1998-99 war. (Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)

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TIRANA

EU criticises Albania’s new media authority chief. The election of Armela Krasniqi as chairwoman of the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) by parliament with 83 votes in favour has sparked criticism from the EU office in Tirana, BIRN reported. Read more.

• France: European Parliament session in Strasbourg continues / Prime Minister Jean Castex will discuss vaccination with local politicians Thursday afternoon
• Luxembourg: Meeting in Schengen between the Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Jean Asselborn and his German and French counterparts, Heiko Maas and Jean-Yves Le Drian.
• Hungary: New law banning ‘promotion’ of homosexuality among minors comes into effect.
• Poland: Polish Sejm, the Lower house of parliament, will make its sixth attempt to elect an Ombudsman.
• Italy: The Speaker of the House Fico meets the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea Park Byeong-Seug
• Portugal:  Council of Ministers meets to review measures to fight the pandemic.
• Greece: The government is expected to re-introduce new measures to fight a resurgence of COVID-19 cases.
• Cyprus: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visits in connection with the recovery and resilience plans
• Slovenia: Informal session of the employment and social affairs ministers organised by the Slovenian EU presidency and dedicated to resilience and inclusiveness of labour markets.
• Bulgaria: East European leaders discuss energy security at annual Three Seas Initiative
• Romania: Minister for European Investments and Projects, Cristian Ghinea, visits Brussels on a two-day visit for talks on the recovery and resilience plan.
• President Klaus Iohannis attends the Three Seas Summit in Sofia.
• Croatia: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visits in connection with the recovery and resilience plans, participates in the cabinet’s meeting, and visits Rimac Automobili company.
• Serbia: President Aleksandar Vučić meets Hungary’s Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban. After the meeting, the Medal of the Serbian Flag of the First Order will be presented to the Hungarian foreign affairs and trade minister, Peter Szijjarto. 

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[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski, Sarantis Michalopoulos, Daniel Eck, Paula Kenny, Zoran Radosavljevic, Josie LeBlond] 

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