A Hazy Future for European Integration
While Eastern Partnership is not likely to have been originally intended by the EU as a new European watershed, by 2012-2013 it can be viewed as an inadequate response to the obvious achievements of post-Soviet integration that have led to the establishment of the Customs Union. READ MORE
Azerbaijan After Vilnius Summit: More Questions than Answers
On November 29, Azerbaijan and the European Union signed a visa-facilitation agreement in Vilnius, Lithuania, within the framework of the Eastern Partnership summit. The agreement was signed by the foreign minister of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, by Linas Linkevicius, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania in his capacity (July 1–December 31, 2013) as President of the Council of the European Union, and by Stefan Fule, the EU’s commissioner with responsibility for enlargement and the European Neighborhood Policy (Contact.az, November 29). The agreement will help Azerbaijani citizens to obtain an EU visa more easily and more cheaply. READ MORE
Global recession from West to East
There seems to be pessimism in the air regarding the economic prospects of the West and by extension the world. In its recent report, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revised downward its estimates of growth for many countries. It lowered the overall growth rate forecast of the Euro Zone for 2013 and 2014 each by 0.5 per cent. For the entire OECD, the forecast has been lowered by 0.6 per cent for 2013 and 0.2 per cent for 2014. READ MORE
Nowak: 'We have a new East-West conflict'
An OSCE meeting took place in Kyiv as Ukrainians held pro-European protests. But, the group has lost its importance, says international law expert Manfred Nowak because the West and Russia are drifting apart. READ MORE
Moscow urges OSCE to address problem of non-citizenship in EU - Lavrov
Moscow is calling on the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to take a closer look at the problem of national minorities, including the problem of non-citizenship in the European Union, the Voice of Russia correspondent Ksenya Melnikova quotes Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying. READ MORE
BORIS TADIC: whatever is going to be position of Russia EU has to continue Eastern Partnership policy
Interview of former President of Serbia and the Honorary president of Democratic Party, Boris Tadic. READ MORE
France and Poland Leading Europe’s Defense Integration
When NATO Commander General Philip Breedlove revealed last month that the United States would be cutting its military spending in Europe by up to 20 percent next year, Europe did not react with the same concern it might have shown even a few years ago. That may be because a more strategic Europe is emerging after a prolonged period of soul-searching. Two countries in particular appear to be leading the way: France and Poland. READ MORE
Ukrainian Authorities Stopped the Train to Europe at Full Speed
Political crisis in Ukraine was incites by inconsistency of the executive power in Kiev. This is the opinion of the former Vice Minister of Finances Aleksey Kudrin expressed in the article published in “Kommersant”. READ MORE
Polish PM: Yanukovych resignation 'unlikely'
"A scenario whereby President Yanukovych loses power seems unlikely," Donald Tusk has told the TVP broadcaster. READ MORE
The Visegrad Group in the Common European Process
The global economic crisis at the turn of the 2010s, which called into question the efficiency of the EU’s crisis recovery measures, created prerequisites for the consolidation "for survival" of regional alliances that had not, previously, been considered high profile. Thus, against the backdrop of skeptical reasoning over the EU’s destiny, the Visegrad Group has made efforts to consolidate and intensify interaction. READ MORE
