Both private and public institutions in the EU can receive European money from the Fund for defence research and development. However, there were only a few Slovak companies interested in it. The money is shared unevenly among the countries and also goes to large companies, the defence ministry says. Yet, the third round of the call has attracted the most applicants across Europe so far.

The European Defence Agency has presented its report on the EU defence spending in the last year. While costs are up year-on-year, countries have started to buy in bulk, especially quickly accessible and non-European solutions. Experts therefore warn that this will only harm common defence. Slovakia has improved especially in investments, Hungary is the EU leader in these.

Russia is not giving up in Ukraine and its combat capacities must not be underestimated, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, warned after the meeting of the Alliance's ministers. According to him, Putin shows no signs of fatigue. Dimitro Kuleba, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, called on the defence industry to increase capacity and to cooperate even more "as one Euro-Atlantic complex".

Prague expects "tangible results". It wants to focus on Ukraine, as it would like to see two specific "political outcomes" in this field.

MEPs adopted their position on a bill to strengthen media transparency and independence in the EU on Tuesday in Strasbourg. 448 MEPs voted in favour, 102 were against and 75 abstained from voting on the European Media Freedom Act.