All posts tagged: Procurement

Von der Leyen to head to Lithuania for drone crisis talks – POLITICO

Von der Leyen to head to Lithuania for drone crisis talks – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Lithuania issued an air alert on Wednesday after a stray drone was detected close to the country’s border with Belarus, with NATO’s Baltic air-policing mission activated as a result. The incident came after two Ukrainian drones, intended for Russia, came down over an empty oil storage facility in Latvia earlier this month — sparking a crisis that has led to the collapse of the governing coalition. A NATO jet shot down a drone in Estonian airspace last week. “Russia’s public threats against our Baltic States are completely unacceptable,” von der Leyen said in a message posted on social media last week. “Russia and Belarus bear direct responsibility for drones endangering the lives and security of people on our Eastern flank. Europe will respond with unity and strength.” The three Baltic countries have warned that Moscow is seeking to capitalize on the incidents to drive a wedge between Ukraine and its EU allies — issuing a joint statement in which they rejected “Russia’s blatant disinformation campaign and its fabricated accusations following the airspace violations, which Russia …

Europe races to make it harder for Trump to rattle NATO – POLITICO

Europe races to make it harder for Trump to rattle NATO – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson warned against inserting a “European preference” into EU defense procurement rules. “My responsibility, first and foremost, is to get weapons in the hands of these warfighters,” Jonson said on Saturday. “Sometimes that can be from Europeans, sometimes it can be from the Americans or somewhere it can be from Asia.” Jonson’s warning landed weeks after Thomas DiNanno, the U.S. under secretary of state for arms control, traveled to Poland, Romania and Estonia. The State Department said his Warsaw meetings with U.S. industry representatives included discussions on “EU defense protectionism” and the “America First Arms Transfer Strategy.” Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Țoiu also framed the balance between equipping troops and building up local defense industries. “Localization was very important, investment in jobs at home was very important,” she said on Saturday. But Bucharest also wants to “create the space to advance in the engagement with the United States,” she said, adding that Romania’s procurement plan included “more than $2 billion” of U.S. kit. That need to calibrate domestic interests against keeping …

China says preliminary agreement reached with US to lower some tariffs

China says preliminary agreement reached with US to lower some tariffs

Published by Sam Flores

China’s commerce ministry said on Saturday that Beijing and Washington had struck a preliminary agreement to reduce some tariffs, and also confirmed agricultural and aircraft deals reached during U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing. The ministry’s statement came the day after Trump concluded a state visit to China for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump had indicated on Friday that tariffs were not discussed in his meetings with Xi. In a statement posted on its website Saturday, the commerce ministry in Beijing said the two ⁠sides had agreed to establish a trade council and an investment council. The trade council will seek to ​negotiate reciprocal tariff reductions on specific products, as well as broader cuts on unspecified goods including ​agricultural products, it said. “Through the trade council, the two sides will discuss issues such as tariff reductions on specific products, and they have agreed in principle to lower tariffs on products of respective concern on an equivalent scale,” the ministry said without providing further specifics. In addition, the two sides “agreed to promote two-way trade, including in …

How to watch the king’s speech like a pro

How to watch the king’s speech like a pro

Published by Sam Flores

LONDON — The opening of a new U.K. parliamentary session is steeped in decades of pageantry and tradition. But few have taken place in these circumstances. On Wednesday morning, King Charles III will enter parliament to deliver a speech setting out Keir Starmer’s legislative agenda for the second parliamentary session of his premiership. Over 35 bills will be listed, according to the government. But after last week’s disastrous local and devolved elections for Starmer’s Labour Party, the question on Westminster’s mind is how much of it will actually be delivered — and by whom. “The British people expect the Government to get on with the job of changing our country for the better,” a defiant Starmer said on Tuesday. He said the laws will “deliver on the promise of change for the British people” that ushered Labour into power less than two years ago — and cautioned colleagues weighing up a challenge to his leadership that they face a choice over whether to “press ahead with a plan to build a stronger, fairer country or …

New EU medicines law aims to bypass India, China on key drugs – POLITICO

New EU medicines law aims to bypass India, China on key drugs – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The European Parliament had wanted medicines tenders to prioritize critical medicines with at least 50 percent of the product’s value made within the EU. The final compromise gives procuring bodies the option to prioritize EU-made products, with a sliding reward scale for medicines with a greater proportion of production in Europe. The capitals had opposed a mandatory preference for EU products, since these medicines are expected to come with a significantly higher price tag. And with Europe’s public health systems already under budgetary pressure, higher drug prices will be hard to absorb. Tiemo Wölken, Parliament’s negotiator with the socialists, told POLITICO after the deal: “Priority should always be given to manufacturers with the highest proportion of production located within the Union.” Helping hand for home-made drugs The text also establishes criteria for setting up so-called industrial “strategic projects” in the EU to create, modernize and increase manufacturing capacity for critical medicines. These projects can benefit from national or EU financial support, but they will have to comply with clear obligations, including prioritizing supply to the EU market. …

Hungary’s Magyar meets von der Leyen to game-plan unlocking frozen EU funds – POLITICO

Hungary’s Magyar meets von der Leyen to game-plan unlocking frozen EU funds – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Magyar’s team has also been working with some of his predecessor’s ministers and civil servants to advance the technical work required to make the reforms, three other officials with knowledge of the proceedings said. András Kármán, Magyar’s nominee for finance minister, István Kapitány, tapped for economy minister, and Anita Orbán, the incoming foreign minister, met a high-level Commission delegation, including von der Leyen’s Cabinet chief Bjoern Seibert, on Saturday and prepared the ground for the Magyar-von der Leyen meeting. Before that, the teams met in Budapest on April 18 and 19. The first step to unlocking Hungary’s recovery money is complying with 27 EU-mandated “super milestones,” covering procurement, judicial independence and academic freedom. Because Tisza has won more than two-thirds of the seats in parliament, Magyar is expected to be able to get those changes approved quickly. European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber with Ursula Von der Leyen in Brussels in January 2025. Weber said the European Parliament should halt Article 7 proceedings against Hungary. | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images The harder part is …

Hungary’s Tisza party widens parliamentary majority as final votes are counted – POLITICO

Hungary’s Tisza party widens parliamentary majority as final votes are counted – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Orbán’s Fidesz party came in a distant second with only 52 seats in the parliament. “Here are the results of the 2026 parliamentary election: an unprecedented majority, an unprecedented mandate — and, at the same time, an unprecedented responsibility,” Magyar wrote in an X post on Saturday. He added that he could be officially sworn in as prime minister in mid-May. Magyar’s supermajority could facilitate the swift approval of democratic reforms necessary to unlock €17 billion of EU funds that were frozen over rule-of-law shortcomings under Orbán’s tenure. Under the current rules, the Hungarian government has to fulfill 27 EU-mandated conditions — officially known as “super milestones” — that will reform the country’s procurement rules, and increase judicial independence and academic freedom as a precondition to claim any funding. Over the weekend, Magyar and his future ministers held talks in Budapest with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s chief of staff, Bjoern Seibert, and several director-generals. The goal was to outline a roadmap to release the money and discuss a €90 billion loan to Ukraine that was …

Pentagon says Ukraine support can’t rely on American contributions – POLITICO

Pentagon says Ukraine support can’t rely on American contributions – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

He added that continued assistance to Kyiv “must not rely on significant U.S. contributions,” urging allies to step up funding and production instead. Under Donald Trump, new U.S. military aid to Ukraine has fallen to almost nothing. However, Washington is willing to sell weapons to Kyiv financed by other allies under the NATO-led Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List program, which gathered €3.7 billion last year for arms purchases. U.S. military help to Ukraine fell by 99 percent in 2025, said the Kiel Support Tracker which monitors aid to Kyiv. “At the same time, Europe sharply increased its aid allocations, by 59 percent for financial and humanitarian aid and by 67 percent for military aid compared to the 2022–24 average. As a result, total aid in 2025 remained close to previous years,” it said. This week, Vice President JD Vance said he was proud of the U.S. halting military aid to Ukraine. “It’s one of the things I’m proudest that we’ve done in this administration is we’ve told Europe that if you want to buy weapons, you can, but …

Traza raises .1 million led by Base10 to automate procurement workflows with AI

Traza raises $2.1 million led by Base10 to automate procurement workflows with AI

Published by skeptic

For decades, procurement has been the back office that enterprise software forgot. Billions of dollars flow through vendor negotiations, purchase orders, and supplier communications every year at the largest manufacturers and construction companies in the country — and the vast majority of that work still runs on email threads, spreadsheets, and phone calls. Traza, a newly launched startup headquartered in New York, believes the moment has arrived to change that. The company announced today the close of a $2.1 million pre-seed round led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Kfund, a16z scouts, Clara Ventures, Masia Ventures, and a roster of angel investors including Pepe Agell, who scaled Chartboost to 700 million monthly users before its acquisition by Zynga. The funding is modest by Silicon Valley standards. But Traza’s pitch is anything but incremental: the company deploys AI agents that don’t just recommend procurement actions — they execute them autonomously, handling vendor outreach, request-for-quote generation, order tracking, supplier communications, and invoice processing without continuous human supervision. “AI is redesigning the procurement category from the ground up,” …

Europe needs to control AI for defense, top industry exec says – POLITICO

Europe needs to control AI for defense, top industry exec says – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

“If these artificial intelligence systems are actually procured from foreign companies, then … our militaries can be turned off. Do we want our military forces to be turned off because we have general political misalignment sometimes?” Mensch asked. His remarks come ahead of the European Commission’s presentation of a major technological sovereignty package, tentatively scheduled for the end of May. The proposals aim to reduce Europe’s reliance on foreign providers in critical areas, including cloud services and semiconductors. Part of the package also aims to boost data centers in Europe. Mistral on Tuesday presented a list of policy proposals that should shape the Commission’s thinking, including a call to prioritize “European-controlled AI infrastructure.” The bloc should use government procurement to ensure that infrastructure remains European, especially for “critical workloads” such as public services and research, the company said. “Most of Europe’s AI workloads run on infrastructure controlled by foreign providers,” leaving the bloc “vulnerable to geopolitical risks, supply chain disruptions and the loss of economic value,” Mistral’s pitch said. Amid a debate about whether AI …