The Czech Republic won’t be joining the euro anytime soon, if the billionaire who’s poised to be the country’s next prime minister has anything to do with it. “No euro. I don’t want the euro. We don’t want the euro here,” Babis said Friday in an interview on the sidelines of the reSITE cities conference in Prague. “Everybody knows it’s bankrupt. It’s about our sovereignty. I want the Czech koruna, and an independent central bank. I don’t want another issue that Brussels would be meddling with.” Source Bloomberg
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin his concerns about Iran’s military presence in Syria. “I will raise the problem of Iran trying to establish a military presence in Syria,” Netanyahu said on August 22. Source: RadioFreeEurope
The German government said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump’s decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan was “the right thing to do.” Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen also welcomed the decision but said that Germany would not follow suit by further raising its troop numbers. Source: The Local
EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn has called for a change of course for the EU on Turkey’s accession to join the bloc, after president Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks living in Germany not to vote for the county’s two ruling parties in the upcoming September elections. Source: Euobserver
