“We are interested in exporting our resources through different routes,” Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev stated during his visit to Bulgaria on November 13. On the same day, he paid a short working visit to Sofia to meet his counterpart Georgi Parvanov and to sign an inter-governmental agreement on the transit of Azeri gas to Europe though the Black Sea. This was the third agreement signed with a foreign country during the past month. Previous agreements were signed with Russia and Iran. Analysts believe that these latest developments hint at Baku’s plans to diversify its export options and reduce its dependence on the so-called “Turkish route”. READ MORE

Rügen is best known as a popular German tourist destination. But now the Baltic Sea island has taken on a new role as staging point for an energy project that is as ambitious as it is controversial: the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. Next spring the first pipeline segments will likely be dropped to the sea floor in a line that will wind through Russian, Finish, Swedish, Danish and German waters—conspicuously avoiding the Baltic states and Poland. READ MORE

Ukraine is in the news again, this time for its panicked response to a flu epidemic that has claimed over three hundred lives. In many countries, this would simply be a matter of public health, but in Ukraine, where politics is polarized by culture and region, an epidemic is another excuse for partisan wrangling. President Viktor Yushchenko is engaged in an escalating verbal battle with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a onetime ally now angling for his job. A presidential election is scheduled for January 17. READ MORE

EU leaders have chosen the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, to be the first permanent European Council President. READ MORE

Russia made a surprise pledge to cut back on CO2 emissions at a summit with the EU in Sweden on Wednesday (18 November). Russian diplomats said the country is ready to cut emissions by 20 to 25 percent below 1990s levels by 2020, up from a previous commitment of 10 to 15 percent. READ MORE

The new western-leaning government in Moldova faces many challenges in the southern European country. Increasing parts of the population are leaving in search of a better life. But many return disillusioned. READ MORE

Gazprom and Rosneft are accelerating exploration efforts in Central Asian onshore projects. Their experience may show that interesting opportunities exist away from the Caspian Sea oil and gas fields, where most of the business focuses on. READ MORE

US President Barack Obama "does not care very much" about security in Europe, Edward Lucas, who has been The Economist's Eastern Europe correspondent for more than 20 years, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview. READ MORE

It is symbolic that the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall was celebrated at the moment when the black-yellow coalition – the grouping of CDU/CSU – Free Democratic Party – came back to power in Germany. In 1989, when the peaceful anti-communist revolution happened in GDR, Western Germany’s government also consisted of CDU/CSU and FDP. At that time Chancellor Helmut Kohl, leader of Christian Democrats, and Vice Chancellor Hans-Dietrich Genscher, FRG Foreign Minister and head of Free Democratic Party, played a great historic role in the unification of Germany. READ MORE