The European Commission's annual progress report on Turkish membership says Ankara has improved its handling of human rights issues and the Kurdish minority. But it says that a lot more work needs to be done for it to become an EU member. The report is being met with little enthusiasm in Turkey as doubts over its bid to become a member continues to grow. READ MORE

Kazakhstan can give an impulse to the OSCE restructuring and balancing the three baskets of the Organization during its Presidency in OSCE in 2010, claimed the Head of the Foreign Policy Studies Department of Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies at the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Bulat Auelbayev. READ MORE

Authorities in Tiraspol are watching the political deadlock in Chisinau with barely concealed satisfaction. Moldova’s political and constitutional crisis since April has further deepened the freeze on both tracks of negotiations on the Transnistria conflict: the international 5+2 format and the bilateral right bank – left bank dialogue. Tiraspol is in a position to argue irrefutably that negotiations can only resume after Moldova resolves its internal crisis and elects a head of state. READ MORE