Month: January 2025

Bulgaria and Romania welcomed the New Year with full accession to the European Union’s passport-free Schengen Zone, a move that will provide a new impetus for their economies, according to Bloomberg.

The EU had already allowed Bulgaria and Romania passport-free travel by air and sea in March last year. However, both countries have long emphasized that the elimination of controls at land borders is a critical factor.

According to an analysis by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, without queues at the border, the entire population of Bulgaria could save time equivalent to 242,000 days of waiting at checkpoints.

The same study revealed significant economic benefits. The direct impact of full Schengen membership on Bulgaria, one of the EU’s poorest members, is estimated at €866 million annually.

Key manufacturers, including those in the automotive industry — which accounts for about 15% of Romania’s economy and 4% of Bulgaria’s economy — have also expressed relief.

“It’s the best news we could’ve got in a period marked by big uncertainties for the auto industry overall,” said Adrian Sandu, head of Romania’s Association of Automotive Manufacturers. He estimated that staying outside Schengen cost the country’s automotive industry €180,000 per day.

Second-class citizens

Due to the long wait, 19 million Romanians and 6 million Bulgarians have said they feel like second-class citizens in the EU.

However, the Schengen they dreamed of is gradually changing. This is due to new restrictions already implemented in other parts of the passport-free zone. For example, once a champion of open borders, Germany has reintroduced controls at its borders with EU neighbors.

Meanwhile, rising anti-migrant sentiment is boosting support for far-right groups across the EU, and Romania and Bulgaria are no exception. Disputes over migration led to delays in the full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen Zone as both countries sought to address Austria’s concerns.

As the final decision granting full access to the Schengen Zone was made only on December 12, authorities were unable to prepare for the abolition of border controls promptly.

Romania’s 2025 train schedule was approved before the Schengen agreement decision, meaning trains still have to stop for 30 minutes at the border for document checks.

The Schengen Zone is a group of European countries that have agreed to abolish border controls at internal borders to facilitate the movement of people and goods. This zone was established under the Schengen Agreement signed in 1985 in Schengen, Luxembourg.

The zone allows borders to be crossed freely without passport or visa checks. For short-term stays (up to 90 days within 180 days), a single Schengen visa allows visits to all countries in the zone.

Viktor Orbán’s government has lost the right to receive about €1 billion in European Union aid to Hungary. This happened due to violations of the rule of law, according to DW.

By the end of 2024, Hungary was supposed to implement reforms aimed at complying with EU standards, including changes to laws on preventing conflicts of interest and fighting corruption.

However, since it has not done so, the country is now finally losing the right to this assistance, a European Commission spokesperson told DPA.

Failure to comply with standards

In December 2022, EU countries decided to freeze the payment of €6.3 billion from the European budget to Hungary under various programs. Brussels accused the government of Viktor Orbán of violating EU principles in the area of the rule of law, in particular, in the fight against corruption.

In total, the EU is blocking allocations to Hungary from its funds worth about €19 billion due to various violations. In addition to the rule of law, they also relate to human rights, refugee law, and other EU standards.

Hungary uses the issue of unblocking aid from European funds, in particular, in discussions around support for Ukraine. In December 2023, the European Commission approved advance payments of €900 million to Hungary as part of its still-frozen share of the recovery funds. In this way, the EU is trying to override Budapest’s veto on assistance to Ukraine.

In early December 2024, Viktor Orbán threatened to veto the next seven-year EU budget if Brussels did not unblock the frozen funds for his country.

On New Year’s night, Russian troops targeted at least four Shahed drones at residential buildings in the center of Kyiv. The enemy did this deliberately, Andriy Yermak, Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, reports.

“The Russians struck regular buildings in the center of Kyiv. They intentionally aimed specifically at the capital’s center on New Year’s night. It is preliminarily known that at least four Shaheds attacked buildings in the center of Kyiv,” Yermak stated.

The head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office also added that law enforcement and experts are currently investigating everything promptly.

Consequences of Russia’s attack on Kyiv

Due to the drone attack in the Pecherskyi district of the capital, partial destruction occurred on the 4th to 6th floors of a residential building, as well as a fire on the roof of a nearby non-residential building.

The roof of one of the buildings of the National Bank of Ukraine caught fire, but it was extinguished later.

Debris also fell in the Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv. A non-residential building was damaged, causing a fire.

In addition, debris damaged the track of the high-speed tram in the Borshchahivka neighborhood, but tram services have already been restored.

Currently, two deaths are reported in the capital, and six people have been injured, including pregnant women.

Shahed raid on New Year’s night

In total, Russian occupiers launched 111 drones on New Year’s night. Of them, air defense forces shot down 63, and 46 other drones were lost locally.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already responded to the latest Russian terror, stating that even on New Year’s night, Russia was concerned only with how to hurt Ukraine.

Austria’s Minister for Climate and Energy, Leonore Gewessler, stated that Austria is no longer dependent on Russian gas, as the country has adequately prepared for Ukraine’s decision to suspend transit.

Gewessler noted that Ukraine had repeatedly announced its decision to suspend the transit of Russian gas through its territory. To ensure uninterrupted and unrestricted gas supplies, market participants turned to alternative sources, compensating for supply limitations and guaranteeing gas delivery.

“Ukraine has made it clear in advance that it will not renew the transit contract with the aggressor Russia. We have done our homework and were well-prepared for this scenario… Austria is no longer dependent on Russian gas — and that is good,” the minister stated.

Suspension of Russian gas transit via Ukraine

Today, January 1, Ukraine suspended the transit of gas from the terrorist state of Russia to European countries through its territory. The European Union (EU) was prepared for this scenario and can receive natural gas from other countries through alternative methods.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also reiterated that Ukraine is ready to transport gas to Europe, provided it is not of Russian origin.

For more on the potential consequences of the transit suspension for the EU, Ukraine, and Moldova, read RBC-Ukraine’s report.

The death toll from the Russian shelling of Kyiv on January 1 has increased. So far, 2 victims have been reported, according to the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko.

According to him, the aftermath of the Russian strike on the capital has been underway since the morning.

“Unfortunately, we already have 2 killed. My condolences to the families and friends” stated Tkachenko.

The rescue operation in the Pecherskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts continues.

Russian attack on Kyiv

On New Year’s Eve, Russian troops attacked Kyiv with drones. In particular, there were fires in the Pecherskyi district, for example, the roof of the National Bank building was on fire in Kyiv due to the attack by the Shahed.

One woman was reported to have been injured. Later, the number of victims in Kyiv gradually increased to 7 people, and a woman’s body was found under the rubble in Pecherskyi district. 2 pregnant women were among the victims.

Read all about the consequences of the Russian attack on Kyiv on January 1 in RBC-Ukraine’s report.

On January 1, 2025, gas exports through Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine were halted, marking the end of decades of Russian dominance in Europe’s energy markets, Reuters reports.

Despite nearly three years of war, gas supplies continued, but Ukraine cut off the transit on January 1 at 7:00 GMT.

However, this halt is not expected to impact consumer prices in the European Union, unlike in 2022, when reductions in Russian gas supplies led to a price surge, exacerbating the cost-of-living crisis and undermining the EU’s competitiveness.

The last remaining buyers of Russian gas in the EU via Ukraine, such as Slovakia and Austria, have arranged alternative supplies. Hungary will continue receiving Russian gas through the TurkStream, which runs via two pipelines under the Black Sea.

The break in gas supply also affected the Russian-occupied region of Transnistria in Moldova, which has cut off heating and hot water to households due to its dependency on the same gas transit routes.

The European Commission has stated that the EU had prepared for the cut-off.

“The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin. It has been reinforced with significant new LNG (liquefied natural gas) import capacities since 2022,” Spokesperson for the European Commission said.

Ukraine, which decided not to renew the transit agreement, emphasized that Europe has already made the strategic decision to move away from Russian gas.

“We stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event. Russia is losing its markets; it will suffer financial losses,” Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko stated.

Cost to both sides

Ukraine will lose around $800 million annually in transit fees, while Gazprom is set to lose about $5 billion in gas sales.

Russia and the former Soviet Union spent half a century building up a significant share of the European gas market, which at its peak was around 35%. Still, the war has all but destroyed Gazprom’s business in this area.

The Yamal-Europe pipeline, which runs through Belarus, was also closed, and in 2022, the Nord Stream route across the Baltic Sea to Germany was blown up.

In total, a record amount of gas was delivered to Europe via various routes in 2018 – 201 billion cubic meters. In 2023, Russia delivered around 15 billion cubic meters of gas via Ukraine, which is less than the 65 billion cubic meters when the last five-year contract came into force in 2020.

As reports indicated, Naftogaz’s five-year contract with Gazprom expired on January 1, 2025. Ukraine shut off the gas valve on January 1 at 7:00 GMT, depriving Moscow of approximately $5-7 billion in annual revenue.

As Ukraine’s Energy Minister German Galushchenko stated, “citizens will not feel this event at all because we will provide gas, and accordingly heat, to the homes of every Ukrainian.”