Tamara Kaňuchová

The European Correspondent • 14th August 2026

Who wants a makeover in Europe's annual culture pageant?

Every year, the EU hands a few cities an unusual mandate: strengthen European unity and boost local culture. These cities become European Capitals of Culture (ECoC), and this year the title belongs to Trenčín in Slovakia and Oulu in Finland.

Every year, the EU hands a few cities an unusual mandate: strengthen European unity and boost local culture. These cities become European Capitals of Culture (ECoC), and this year the title belongs to Trenčín in Slovakia and Oulu in Finland.

The European Correspondent • 12th August 2026

What would happen if Europe stopped importing its energy?

The European Union buys around 97% of its crude oil and nearly 88% of its natural gas from abroad, making it particularly vulnerable to price spikes and supply disruptions. Petroleum makes up 38% of the EU's energy mix, and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) represents 21% of the bloc's energy consumption.“We see a lot of spending going into defence and security. We need to think of energy security as being part of that. We need to strengthen the energy infrastructure so that it can withstand sabotage,...

The European Correspondent • 11th August 2026

Can we trust content creators in the political arena?

For the first time ever, social media networks have become the main news source for people globally, according to the latest Reuters Digital News Report, used by 54% of respondents. While a lot of the content viewed on social media still comes from traditional media outlets, content creators and influencers are increasingly taking up space.Political parties have long used content creators as campaigning tools to reach audiences in places where they already spend a lot of their time. As they tend...

The European Correspondent • 28th July 2026

High altitude, low waste

If you're a regular summer hiker, you know the drill: everything that goes up must come down. As a junior mountain explorer on my first trip to a mountain hut, I wondered: how do the hut's guardians plan the meals and deal with the waste from all the guests?There are more than 800 huts around the Alps. One of them is Sewenhütte, in central Switzerland, at an altitude of 2,150 metres. I spoke to the hut guardians Ursula and Walter Gehrig about their food and waste management in the summer season....

VSquare.org • 8th July 2026

"Hybrid War Over Our Own Democracy and Sovereignty": How Vučić and Putin Targets Serbia's Civil Society - VSquare.org

A Russian cyberespionage operation spent a month inside a Belgrade think tank’s inboxes, reading 28,000 emails after posing as a Belarusian dissident to get in. Tied to the SVR and GRU, the hackers weren’t just after documents — they walked away with a blueprint of relationships and vulnerabilities that AI can weaponize. As Serbia heads toward elections, the attack reveals a darker pattern: Moscow and Belgrade often chase the same enemies.Serbia, which has seen almost two years of protests follo...

The European Correspondent • 6th July 2026

Europe isn't getting its money's worth on defence

European defence spending is currently at an all-time high. European NATO members spent around €520 billion on defence in 2025. Germany's defence budget is set to more than triple from 2021 to 2029, Poland already spends 4.8% of its GDP on defence – the highest share in NATO – and Sweden is in the middle of its largest military build-up since the Cold War.Together, European NATO members now spend the equivalent of almost 60% of the US defence budget. Europe has the second-largest defence expendi...

The European Correspondent • 18th June 2026

The fragile future of voting from abroad

Whether it's because you're studying, working, or reuniting with your partner in a different country, Europeans are becoming increasingly mobile: around 14 million EU citizens live in a member state other than their own, and around 19 million reside outside the continent.“The 20th century was about women's right to vote, and the 19th was about mass suffrage, but now the question of who gets to vote from abroad and how will become more and more relevant,“ she continued.
After two parliamentary el...

The European Correspondent • 10th June 2026

The magic of growing mushrooms

Europe has a massive mushroom cultivation sector, it grows around a million tonnes of button mushrooms – the very common white or brown round mushrooms – in a year. Poland, the Netherlands and Spain dominate the market.The next container is a lot cooler, still quite humid. “In nature, you have one day in October when the temperature drops very low. And that's basically the signal for most mushrooms to think, now I have to grow before it’s freezing,” he explained.
“Sometimes people come here, and...

The European Correspondent • 2nd June 2026

Less vroom more whoosh

What's in it for you? Electric trains are cheaper to operate and maintain compared to diesel trains. That doesn’t translate directly into lower ticket prices, but electrification does shield providers from volatile fossil fuel prices. An electrified rail network means fewer disruptions and cancelled journeys like we see in aviation.
Electric trains also accelerate faster and can be longer and heavier, increasing the number of trains that can operate per hour and the number of passengers they can...

The European Correspondent • 28th May 2026

Having a uterus in Europe still sucks

When people talk about period poverty, they often focus on access to free or cheaper period products.
But products are only half the story. A recent report by Slovak NGO Intymyta links the problem to broader sanitation issues. It found that 28% of respondents across Slovakia – disproportionately from low-income families and marginalised groups – don't have access to warm water, and 25% don’t have access to a shower or a flushing toilet.
Natália Blahová, the author of Intymyta's report, told us...

The European Correspondent • 20th May 2026

Mr. Robot at the power plant

There have been 23 recorded cyberattacks on Europe's energy sector since 2022. While attacks themselves are dangerous, these incidents also take a psychological toll: exposing vulnerabilities of our nuclear sites massively shakes public trust in our critical infrastructure.Cyberattacks and IT security are considered the biggest threats to Germany’s energy security, according to a survey of 150 local utilities. An ethical hacker uncovered vulnerabilities in the Dutch solar panel network, gaining...

The European Correspondent • 21st April 2026

Greetings from a village living in the future of solar power

If your roof has solar panels, you can use your homegrown renewable energy to cover your entire electricity supply, all year long. This future is being tested by the Green Village, a research field and “living lab” on the campus of TU Delft in the Netherlands.Strolling around the village, professor Miroslav Zeman, an expert in electrical engineering with a focus on solar photovoltaics (PVs), explained that the main purpose of this “living lab” is to test how to make the built environment sustain...

The European Correspondent • 26th March 2026

How tax fuels tank tourism

Diesel prices have surged by 25% in Europe over the past month, and are now above €2 a litre in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.Europeans pay some of the world’s highest prices for petrol or diesel. Up to half of that price is tax. Each EU member state sets its own rate above the minimum set by EU law of €0.359 per litre for petrol and €0.33 for diesel. While Malta and Bulgaria stick close to the lowest possible rate, the Neth...

Transitions • 25th March 2026

Tamara Kanuchova, Author at Transitions

As protests continue to shake Serbia, minority Hungarian and Slovak communities in the country’s northern Vojvodina region describe growing political pressure, shrinking autonomy, and a quiet exodus of youth. From Balkan Insight.

As protests continue to shake Serbia, minority Hungarian and Slovak communities in the country’s northern Vojvodina region describe growing political pressure, shrinking autonomy, and a quiet exodus of youth. From Balkan Insight.

The European Correspondent • 19th March 2026

Can we get off the UNESCO list?

Vlkolínec, a small village in central Slovakia, looks like a fairytale frozen in time. In 1993, its 45 traditional wooden houses earned it UNESCO World Heritage status. That's when the fairytale started to slowly fall apart.
Today, the 14 remaining residents no longer want to be on the list. UNESCO protection rules heavily restrict farming, keeping animals, or renovating their homes. Meanwhile, around 100,000 tourists come every year, looking into residents' windows and wandering through their c...

The European Correspondent • 18th March 2026

Meet the world’s wealthiest defence boss

While no Elon Musk, Strnad sits only behind the American billionaire as the individual who increased their net worth the most in the first few weeks of 2026. On 23 January, Strnad's Czechoslovak Group (CSG) was listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange as the largest initial public offering (IPO) ever in the history of the defence sector, raising €3.8 billion. The sales of stocks yielded €750 million for the company.CSG profited from Russia's war in Ukraine. The company is a key supplier of militar...

Balkan Insight • 6th March 2026

Caught Between Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest: Vojvodina’s Fractured Minorities

Vojvodina, Serbia’s northern province, often feels like a mosaic, with over 25 ethnic groups speaking six official languages making up roughly 30 per cent of the province’s population. The two largest ethnic minorities – Hungarian and Slovak – make up 13 per cent and 2.3 per cent of the region’s population, respectively.
Serbia’s minority protection framework is often praised in legal terms. National minorities are guaranteed rights to preserve their language and identity through education at mi...

The European Correspondent • 17th February 2026

Your home is leaking money

In the EU, 75% of buildings are energy inefficient – they're poorly insulated or dependent on fossil fuels. For low and middle-income households, this means a stronger burden on monthly utility bills.One of the most prominent solutions to improve energy efficiency is the heat pump. The most common air-source (as opposed to water-source) heat pump runs on electricity and moves heat by capturing air, compressing it into gas to increase the temperature, and then releasing it indoors via an air-fan....

The European Correspondent • 17th February 2026

Turning crisis into clean energy: Ukraine's war-time transition

Winter in wartime is challenging, especially with recurring energy outages due to low temperatures, while trying to rebuild damaged infrastructure. While Ukraine struggles to keep the lights on, green transition doesn't really sound like a priority.”Over 18 gigawatt of generating capacity was lost (since 2022), including the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe's largest nuclear facility,” said Yuliia Rybak, programme manager of the UNDP Green Energy Recovery Programme in Ukraine, to The Eur...

The European Correspondent • 8th February 2026

How to share energy with your neighbour

Take Ukraine: as Russia's war against it wages on, power plants remain a strategic targets, proving the importance of innovative solutions.The destruction of the old energy infrastructure has presented an opportunity to rebuild the grid in a more decentralised way – powered by various smaller sources instead of a one large central power plant. That significantly boosts the grid's security.
Energy sharing goes hand in hand with decentralisation – it enables citizens to directly leverage small pow...

The European Correspondent • 8th February 2026

Domestic flights make a quiet comeback

When Ryanair, Europe's largest low-cost airline announced new routes to Bratislava last year, it came with a familiar punchline: “Not sure where Bratislava is? Perfect. Go find out for €16.99.” And many seem to listen.
A competing low-cost airline, Wizz Air, also stepped up operations in Slovakia, launching a new connection between Bratislava and Košice, the country's second biggest city, close to the border with Hungary. The flight covers 313 kilometres in around 40 minutes, while a train takes...

VSquare.org • 5th February 2026

Blackmail Allegations and a Million Signatures: Babiš’s Government Already Under Fire - VSquare.org

Not even two months into office, Andrej Babiš’s coalition government — made up of ANO, SPD, and the Motorists party — is already facing a wave of protests. Demonstrations are directed not only against the coalition’s decisions, but also in support of President Petr Pavel. Babiš is juggling his own scandals alongside growing tensions between the president and several ministers, all while the Czech Republic’s foreign policy appears increasingly inconsistent and improvised.
The protest movement Mil...

25th December 2025

Big oil’s retreat from renewables | The European Correspondent

For a moment there, it looked promising for the EU's sustainability goals to cut down our energy dependency on fossils. Even the big oil and gas companies were on board, setting their own targets to match the common green vision. But now, it's hard to miss the pattern – they've been quietly retreating from renewables and reverting back to fossil fuels.
Let's take Shell, Europe's biggest oil and gas company: first, the company lowered its emissions reduction target from 20% to 15-20% by the end...

25th December 2025

How to get kicked out of the European socialist party | The European Correspondent

Making headlines for its controversial stances on gender, adoption and NGOs, Slovakia's governing Smer party looks like your average right-wing populist party. Yet, to many people's surprise, its official political orientation is quite different, as the full name suggests: Smer – Social Democracy.
The designated centre-left party has now fully swerved from its label, as it has been permanently kicked out of the Party of European Socialists (PES), an EU-level umbrella alliance for socialist, soci...