Some movies, TV, books, music, travel and sporting highlights that kept the Emerging Europe team occupied when we weren’t busy working. Films The New Year That Never Came, directed by Bogdan Mureșanu A clever film which takes place during a period of 24 hours beginning early in t … | Continue reading
The solid growth of recent years continues, but Kyrgyzstan is still playing economic catch up with most of its neighbours. Diversification—especially into tourism—would help. Landlocked and often overshadowed by its more populous and economically powerful neighbours, Kyrgyzstan h … | Continue reading
The future of education in emerging Europe—and everywhere—demands a radical shift. A revolution, not reform. The question is: will we have the courage to start over? Emerging Europe prides itself on being a region of transformation—adapting, innovating, and reinventing itself in … | Continue reading
From Ukraine’s ongoing resilience in the face of Russia’s brutal aggression to rigged elections in Georgia, political stalemate in Bulgaria, and the shooting of Slovakia’s PM, this is Emerging Europe’s review of 2024. Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk regi … | Continue reading
Armed with lower operating costs, well-educated workforces, and supportive local governments, secondary cities are becoming unexpected magnets for talent and investment. For decades, ambitious firms seeking a foothold in Central and Eastern Europe gravitated toward the usual susp … | Continue reading
As the recent ousting of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad proves, no autocracy is permanent—and that includes the regime of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev. In late November, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—an outgrowth of the now-defunct Al-Nusra Front and Syria’s main opposition movemen … | Continue reading
Innovation in the mobility sector and a commitment to sustainability mean that the competition for a liveable Baltic capital, Vilnius currently enjoys pole position. Vilnius is currently a city going places, quite literally. Construction of a shiny new departures terminal at the … | Continue reading
Kosovo must invest 2.8 billion US dollars in climate resilience over the next decade to safeguard its economy, health, and environment while transitioning to net-zero emissions by 2050. Investing in climate resilience and transitioning the economy from fossil fuels to renewables … | Continue reading
While attitudes are slowly changing, many people with mental health issues in the emerging Europe region still hesitate to seek help, fearing judgment or misunderstanding. Emerging Europe is a region historically known for its resilience. Its people have endured wars, including t … | Continue reading
What happened in Romania’s presidential election marks the beginning of the new political era, of hybrid war, political unrest, and disdain, anger and revolt against political elites. The recent crisis in Romania has come as a direct consequence of a decision by the country’s Con … | Continue reading
Surprisingly little is known in the West about the role of Central Asia in World War II. This scholarly but thoroughly readable work plugs that gap. Even though Central Asia was far from the main battlefields of World War II, it was still tightly bound up in the Soviet war effort … | Continue reading
Boomerang Partners, a rapidly growing global company, concludes 2024 with top achievements. It became a game changer in the iGaming and sports betting industries. This year, the company achieved significant growth in business indicators, developed its affiliate network, and expan … | Continue reading
McKinsey estimates that about 500 billion US dollars could be added in value to global agriculture through drone surveillance, automation and crop monitoring. The technology is available. Agriculture was, in 2024, a source of tension in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly li … | Continue reading
As over-tourism threatens cultural integrity and residents’ quality of life, the EU must act to shift the focus toward lesser-known regions, balancing the influx of visitors across the continent while offering a sustainable travel experience and promoting rural economic developme … | Continue reading
ComplexDiscovery has released the findings of its Fall 2024 eDiscovery Business Confidence Survey, the 36th installment of the widely respected quarterly survey. Conducted from November 12 to December 6, 2024, this survey provides an in-depth look at the eDiscovery industry, incl … | Continue reading
As growth sputters and debt mounts, North Macedonia faces a stark choice: fix its public finances fast or watch its economic promise wither away. More than three decades after gaining independence from Yugoslavia, North Macedonia continues to pursue a stable and prosperous market … | Continue reading
A recent regional survey on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) confidence has revealed a notable upswing in optimism across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), underscoring the region’s growing role as a strategic outsourcing hub for global enterprises. The study, which polled a di … | Continue reading
Stara Zagora is transforming from a coal-mining stronghold into Bulgaria’s emerging IT hub, leveraging its location, cost advantages, skilled workforce, and investor appeal to fuel a new era of tech-driven growth. Stara Zagora in central Bulgaria was once best known for its heavy … | Continue reading
Everyone loves Christmas, everyone loves awards. Awards at Christmas therefore are just about perfect. Emerging Europe this week named the winners of its 2024 awards programme, the seventh edition of an initiative first launched in 2018 that highlights best practice, innovation, … | Continue reading
Data show a significant slowdown in new foreign greenfield investment in most countries of the region: only Moldova has seen an increase. International investors are increasingly turning their backs on Central, East and Southeast Europe. This is the conclusion of a new report by … | Continue reading
With help from EIT Health, a team in Poland is reinventing the way we diagnose and treat mental illness. Mental health disorders, including depression and bipolar disorder, affect millions worldwide. Across Europe alone, an estimated 84 million people experience mental health cha … | Continue reading
IBA Group has announced that its Visual Flow tool for Databricks achieved the Technology Partner Validated tier with Databricks, a unified, open analytics platform for building, deploying, sharing, and maintaining enterprise-grade data, analytics, and AI solutions. This mileston … | Continue reading
Boomerang Partners has been named a finalist in the prestigious Affiliate Programme of the Year category at the Global Gaming Awards EMEA 2025. This recognition highlights the company’s successful efforts in building a strong relationship with affiliates. This year, Boomerang Par … | Continue reading
EU politicians shouldn’t try to turn the DSA into a tool for banning TikTok. That’s not what it’s for. Platform regulation needs clear, evidence-based policies, not hasty political decisions. The EU is at it again. Brussels is trying to stretch the Digital Services Act (DSA) far … | Continue reading
Experts reveal that with global competition rising, Europe must save its competitive edge by ramping up public funding, increasing the existing talent base, and collaborations within member states. A European Commission strategy titled The Future of European Competitiveness highl … | Continue reading
Just as the region has leapfrogged in areas like economic transition, technology and digital governance, it can also become a global leader in political stability and democratic innovation. It’s a question I am frequently asked: How political stable and predictable are the emergi … | Continue reading
In appointing a far-right former footballer to the country’s presidency, the ruling Georgian Dream party has scored yet another own goal. Georgia has history with former footballers becoming politicians. Mayor of the capital, Tbilisi, is Kakha Kaladze, whose storied career took h … | Continue reading
Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary, by Olena Styazhkina The next day, when the city and oblast councils all came down with bad cases of resolutionitis and started moving to have a referendum, join Russia, and entertain other forms of ‘independence’, my colleagues publicly called … | Continue reading
The country’s strategic location, vast arable land, and increasing investment in technology position Kazakhstan as a valuable contributor to supporting the international community’s efforts to ensure food stability. Global food security remains a critical challenge, with nearly 6 … | Continue reading
As of October 2024, an estimated 3.6 million people remain internally displaced in Ukraine, while the United Nations estimates that Ukraine has lost 60 per cent of its electricity-generating capacity. A thousand days of war in Ukraine has driven millions to the edge. As the third … | Continue reading
The most extensive dental lab, better fertility treatment, and California-credited medical studies—Moldova is playing big in the health sector. Twelve years ago, a young Moldovan graduate, Vadim Vetrilă, was handing out fliers in Venice. “Come and fix your teeth in Moldova!” he w … | Continue reading
Border controls between the two countries, as well as Romania-Hungary and Bulgaria-Greece will end on January 1, 2025. On December 12, at a meeting of EU interior ministers, news that had been circulating for a week or two became official: Bulgaria and Romania have finally become … | Continue reading
In the latest of a series of articles drawing on the original analysis and data collected by Emerging Europe as part of our Future of IT report, we look at Croatia: an IT sector increasingly punching above its weight. The digital economy has become the cornerstone of Europe’s gro … | Continue reading
Human Rights Watch says that Poland’s inhumane and illegal pushbacks of people seeking safety fly in the face of its duties under national and EU law and basic humanity. Polish law enforcement is unlawfully, and sometimes violently, forcing people trying to enter the country back … | Continue reading
That the three Baltic states are the most tech-savvy administrations in emerging Europe will come as a surprise to nobody. Less well-known is that Moldova and Ukraine are leading the charge to catch up. If any corner of Europe exemplifies how deft governance can fuse with digital … | Continue reading
That the three Baltic states are the most tech-savvy administrations in emerging Europe will come as a surprise to nobody. Less well-known is that Moldova and Ukraine are leading the charge to catch up. If any corner of Europe exemplifies how deft governance can fuse with digital … | Continue reading
The first significant Russian strategic defeat as a direct consequence of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine is the loss of its Mediterranean outpost. Vladimir Putin’s obsession with Ukraine has led Russia to channel virtually all its military forces and resources into the Ukrain … | Continue reading
Heavens did not fall. Romania did not, on December 8, elect an openly pro-Russia president. With the diaspora already voting in the second round of the country’s presidential election, Romania’s Constitutional Court on December 6 took the unprecedented step of annulling the resul … | Continue reading
Investment in R&D is the backbone of industrial innovation. In CEE, R&D spending varies widely between the various countries, creating a somewhat fragmented, uneven innovation landscape. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has been a manufacturing powerhouse for decades, leveraging … | Continue reading
The next chapter of RIS must be bold. The programme needs a reinvention that addresses its most persistent challenges and embraces opportunities for meaningful transformation. The European Institue of Innovation and Technology’s (EIT) Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) is Europe’s … | Continue reading
Looming energy shortages this winter are likely to provide Ukraine’s economy with its toughest test yet, however. Since the Russian invasion of February 2022, Ukraine’s economy has faced extraordinary challenges, reshaping nearly every sector and testing the limits of resilience. … | Continue reading
In the latest of a series of articles drawing on the original analysis and data collected by Emerging Europe as part of our Future of IT report, we look at Kosovo. With strategic policies and the energy of its entrepreneurial ecosystem, the country is transforming itself from a s … | Continue reading
At first glance, Romania’s 2025 political landscape might seem unsettling, but the country remains a sound bet for international investors and partners. In 2024, buying Romanian debt seemed straightforward. The PSD leader, Marcel Ciolacu, serving as prime minister, aimed for the … | Continue reading
Starting in 2024, the European Union will introduce a transformative requirement mandating nearly all products sold within its market to include a Digital Product Passport (DPP). This initiative, a key element of the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), is design … | Continue reading
From Szczecin to Sofia, EV adoption is being held back by the gaping lack of charging infrastructure. Central and Eastern Europe plays an outsized role in powering Europe’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution. Across the region, factories churn out EVs. Slovakia, for example, is the … | Continue reading
It’s time for Georgia’s allies to show that they are committed to its pro-European future. Western support for democracy and sustainability in Georgia has always been extremely important. These days, however, such support has, practically speaking, became decisive. A whole chain … | Continue reading
It’s time for Georgia’s allies to show that they are committed to its pro-European future. Western support for democracy and sustainability in Georgia has always been extremely important. These days, however, such support has, practically speaking, became decisive. A whole chain … | Continue reading
Moldova is an example for other small countries tethered economically to Moscow—reorientation of the economy is not just possible, but essential. Tethered for decades to Moscow—either by Soviet occupation or economic necessity post-independence—Moldova has, since Russia launched … | Continue reading