Danish Environment Minister Ida Auken has an ambitious agenda for her country's EU presidency, including global leadership on sustainable development. The Socialist politician says she sees no conflict between environmental regulation and spurring economic growth in Europe.
Ida Auken has been Denmark’s minister for environment since October. A member of the Socialist People’s Party, she was elected to the Danish Parliament in November 2007 and is a former chairwoman of the body’s environment committee.  READ MORE

Talks with Russia over NATO's planned missile defence system are failing to progress, the head of NATO said on Thursday, diminishing the likelihood of a summit with Moscow at the NATO summit in May. READ MORE

On the New Year eve the Russian media started escalating the issue of Baltic countries’ future and their place in the region. The forecasts concerning future of the three Baltic States are far from promising. Yet most importantly, the efforts are made to withdraw Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia from the general European context by suggesting Eastern values to these countries. READ MORE

At their summit on Monday, 26 European Union members are set to adopt a new treaty on budget discipline. The fiscal pact is aimed at cutting debt. Is it a breakthrough or just a sideshow? READ MORE

Socio-Economic Modernization as Main Vector of Development of Kazakhstan. READ MORE

On the 16th of December 2011 in the town of Zhanaozen in Mangystau province during the celebration of the Independence day of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the Central square a group of former (previously fired) workers of the «OzenMunaiGaz» oil producing enterprise with the support of the hooligan youngsters started mass insurgencies leading to debacles, looting, setting fire and violence against civilians and police officers. READ MORE

For the tenth time during his presidency, Dmitry Medvedev met with the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan to settle the frozen conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The meeting, which took place yesterday in Sochi, once again failed to secure a breakthrough in the negotiations. As Russia turns inward to focus on recent political protests and Medvedev plans a speedy exit from the limelight, there is still no end in sight to what he has called possibly the only conflict in the post-Soviet space that can be settled today. READ MORE

Early Parliamentary elections took place in Kazakhstan. Beforehand the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev underlined that “the elections to Majilis are to become a new step of democratization of Kazakh society and our political system”. And already now we can positively declare that this stage has come. READ MORE

I am honoured to be the guest of the Brookings Institution today. And I am especially pleased to see so many friends of Europe in the audience.

The famous line from Mark Twain's memoirs about Wagner is also true for Europe: "The music is better than it sounds". And I say that as a great fan of both Richard Wagner and of European integration. READ MORE

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Yerzhan Kh. Kazykhanov  makes his first official visit to the USA in the end of January – beginning of February this year, reported on Mondayan official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Altaj Abibullayev. READ MORE

Polls opened in Croatia this Sunday in a key nationwide vote to decide whether the Balkan country should join the European Union. Surveys show that some 60 percent of voters back EU membership. READ MORE

Russia’s Tough Talk on Foreign Policy Suggests Fear of Internal Revolts. READ MORE

For much of the fourth quarter of 2011, it appeared the eurozone was doomed. Debt was piling up for several key states, and those with the ability to assist lacked the political will to do so. But the European Central Bank (ECB) stepped in in December with measures that have postponed -- not solved -- the European crisis. READ MORE

On December 20, 2011, members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) reached an agreement that makes it impossible for any individual country in the group to host a foreign military base on its territory without the full consent of all other members of the organization. The initiative empowers Russia to veto any foreign basing plans in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Hence, the move serves as a continuation of Russia’s efforts to counteract the influence of the US military and reassert its own role in its immediate neighborhood (Interfax, December 21). READ MORE

Nordic-Baltic cooperation was the focus of this year’s traditional informal Snow Meeting of experts in international and security politics from Europe and North America in Trakai on June 11-12. The discussions were opened by Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis, who highlighted the strengthening of economic ties and shared cultural identity regionally. READ MORE

The economy of Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia (CA). Soon the country will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its Independence (16 December 1991). What happened in the country during these years and what does Lithuania and Kazakhstan have in common? READ MORE

In a year when the survival of the euro is at stake, European Union foreign policy is unlikely to be the top priority in Brussels. READ MORE

On December 26 in Ankara, the Energy Ministers of Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to build a Trans-Anatolia Gas Pipeline to Europe. Crucially, Azerbaijan would be the main owner of this line in Turkish territory. Azerbaijan regards this gas project’s significance as equal to that of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline for Azerbaijan’s national development. The Europe-bound gas pipeline, if built, would mark Azerbaijan’s emergence as a significant gas exporter in its own right, adding to the country’s oil-exporter role. READ MORE