European Union leaders called for stepping up efforts to resolve the Ukraine gas transit issue, a win for Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who had threatened to veto the conclusions of the bloc’s emergency summit if the matter wasn’t addressed.

The EU has previously said it doesn’t support restarting a deal between Russia and Ukraine that kept gas flowing to the bloc.

By bne IntelliNews Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico eventually signed an EU summit resolution on the collective defence of Ukraine on March 6, despite earlier threats to block it. In days before his departure for Brussels,

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Friday the possibility of shipping Azerbaijani gas was part of discussions with the European Commission on restarting transit flows through Ukraine.

European leaders urged EU authorities and Kyiv on Thursday to intensify talks following a halt to Russian gas transit through Ukraine, according to summit conclusions that follow pressure from Slovakia.

Some in Slovakia's government seem to think the best defence against a Russian attack would be to roll over and then hope the occupation eventually ends.

BRATISLAVA Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is threatening to “complicate” the adoption of this week's EU summit conclusions in Brussels unless the bloc demands that Ukraine resume gas transit through its territory. Fico (Smer-SD/NI) did not explicitly state whether he would block the conclusions if his demands were not met.

European defense firms look set to profit from EU investment in rearming as the bloc reacts to the United States' pivot away from Europe’s security under President Donald Trump. But as Henry Ridgwell reports,

LONDON — The U.K. has moved to ban meat and dairy imports from Hungary and Slovakia after a case of foot-and-mouth disease was confirmed along the border between the two countries on Friday, less than two months after an outbreak in Germany.