Today the gas pipeline Nabucco is probably the most important Western energy project in Eurasia. If implemented, it would significantly reduce energy dependence of the EU on Russia. Therefore Nabucco acquires a wide geopolitical dimension exceeding its possible economic benefit. READ MORE

The issue of oil customs duties has been left outside the framework of the Customs Union, and Belarusian authorities have finally surrendered to Moscow. READ MORE

At an informal meeting of European Union’s foreign ministers on 5-6 March in Córdoba (Spain), Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis and his counterparts discussed the shaping of the new European External Action Service, the EU’s relations with large emerging economies, as well as the situation in the Middle East. READ MORE

The responsibility of running the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe may be having a moderating effect on Kazakhstan, Vladimir Shkolnikov, an expert on the workings of the Vienna-based multilateral organization tells EurasiaNet. For one, officials in Astana are finding that it is not so easy to impose their own political preferences on a group that comprises 56 member states, and which requires consensus to get anything done. READ MORE