Energy issues are one of the main subjects of the discussion within plenary session of the European Parliament set on February 2nd in Strasburg. Parliament members focused on general problems of the EU energy policy and the outcomes of gas crisis between Russia and Ukraine. Speaking to the session, EC Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs stated: “The agreement between Ukraine and Russia was concluded for 10 years and we can expect that it would guarantee prevention of the kind of situations in future. But still I’d like to underline that EU observers remain on the positions to monitor gas supplies”. READ MORE

Latest achievements of Russian within Central Asia are so significant, that should be widely discussed. This has been the greatest absurdity of Russian diplomacy since its assistance to American colleagues to change the political regime in Georgia, leading Mihail Saakashvili. Just in a month Russia lost its positions in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that had been gained in recent years due to support, including financial support of these regimes. Instead, Moscow has gained ephemeral victory in Kirgizia in the issue of American military base withdrawal. Thus total Russian influence will remain only in the poorest Central Asian Republic, despite the Kremlin had other plans. Of course, there is Kazakhstan left and the relations in this sphere are firm – but this is not a merit of Russian policymakers, but of the president Nursultan Nazarbaev, who has developed and followed strict international policy course. READ MORE

Drawing on lessons from the recent gas supply crisis, the Industry Committee set out wide-ranging recommendations for the EU's future energy policy in an own-initiative report . It advocated emergency action plans, more grid interconnections among Member States and new climate targets to be achieved by 2050, including raising the share of renewables to 60% of total consumption. READ MORE

OSCE PA President Joao Soares (Portugal) recently discussed his priorities for the coming year and his hopes for the new Greek Chairmanship of the OSCE. In an interview for the OSCE PA website, Mr. Soares described what he sees as the greatest challenges facing the Organization and the role of the Parliamentary Assembly in addressing these challenges, particularly when it comes to so-called 'frozen conflicts.'

Other issues discussed in the interview included the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute, the Mediterranean Partners for Co-operation and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's proposal for a 'new European security architecture.'

Here follows the full transcript of the interview. READ MORE

Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the EU stated that Minsk participation within “Eastern Partnership” program won’t disturb close relations between Russia and Belarus. In addition, Russian diplomat stipulated that Moscow “keeps watch over the program thoroughly”. The EU offered six post-Soviet states to join this program. READ MORE

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen Yury Merzlyakov (Russia), Bernard Fassier (France) and Matthew Bryza (USA) issued a statement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.

The statement notes that the meeting of Presidents Serge Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev in Zurich on January 28th resulted from the Co-Chairs visit to Yerevan and Baku and their meeting with Armenian and Azerbaijani Ministers of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mamedyarov. During the meeting the Co-Chairmen were informed by the Presidents on the basic principles of the conflict resolution. READ MORE

On 5 February 2009 Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner will participate in the EU-Ukraine Foreign Ministers' Troika in Prague. The Ukrainian side will be represented by Foreign Minister, Volodomyr Ohryzko. The Troika will cover a range of bilateral issues and issues of common concern including developments in the region, the Eastern Partnership, the state of play on negotiations towards an Association Agreement as well as energy. READ MORE

Lithuanian representative to the European Parliament Vitautas Landsbergis criticizes the communiqué of the European Commission on Eastern partnership, as this document omits  the issue of member-states security. On January 20th EP Сommittee on Foreign Affairs together with authorized General Director of the EC RELEX Directorate-General Eneko Landaburu discussed a new communiqué on Eastern partnership. READ MORE

Obviously, gas war in its current progress is a next knock-down of the “Putin’s Russia”.

As still there is no other political Russia, each of the kind of strike should be assessed differentially. As well it should be considered weather it damages the dead-end Putin’s model or the statehood itself? READ MORE

On January 15th Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili declared to reporters, that Georgia will refuse to prolong the OSCE mission in Georgia, provided it demands to violate territorial integrity of the country. “It’s important for us to save OSCE mission in our country. But there are more significant values, fundamental principles like territorial integrity. So we’ll never accept the mandate that would ruin these principles. If Russia changes its decision and chooses the formulation, that would not violate these principles, we’ll agree on it.  But we disagree with purely formal presence of the OSCE mission with another name and format”, - stated Iakobashvili.  READ MORE