Expert: EU-US Relations Ripe For Lisbon Treaty Upgrade
Ron Asmus is currently executive director of the Brussels-based Transatlantic Center. He is also responsible for strategic planning at the German Marshall Fund of the US. READ MORE
Will Russia Profit From The Single European Presidency?
Europe is almost a single state now, not only with common finances, common borders and common economic space but also with one president and one foreign minister. READ MORE
The Caspian Comes To Europe
If EU policymakers and companies are not going to go to Caspian energy producers with serious offers for their hydrocarbons, Caspian producers will just have to come to the EU. That seems to be the message being sent by Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan as their state energy companies partner to build an oil pipeline heading West-ward. Plans for the so-called Baku-Black Sea pipeline were announced at the Atlantic Council’s Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum in Bucharest on Oct. 2 by Vitaliy Baylarbayov, Deputy Vice President of SOCAR, the state oil company of Azerbaijan. READ MORE
Czech President Finally Signs EU's Lisbon Treaty
Czech President Vaclav Klaus has finally given up his resistance to the Lisbon Treaty and opened the way for reform of the European Union. READ MORE
European Leaders Agree To Czech Demands Over Lisbon Treaty
EU leaders have agreed to allow the Czech Republic to opt out of a part of the EU's reform treaty, removing one of the last barriers to ratification. The Swedish EU presidency says talks must now shift to the climate. READ MORE
Poland Wants Mini-President At EU Helm
Poland has said it wants the new EU president to be a quiet consensus-builder who will not try to aggrandise the post, in what looks like another blow to British candidate Tony Blair. READ MORE
Czech Leader Positive On Lisbon
Czech President Vaclav Klaus is satisfied an EU proposal meets demands he made for an opt-out on the bloc's Lisbon Treaty, his office says. READ MORE
Power Struggle Defines Debate Over Europe's New Foreign Service
Everyone agrees that the EU needs a powerful diplomatic corps to pull its global weight. But when it comes to creating the new service old turf battles could undermine a debate over the role of the new body. READ MORE
Swedish EU Presidency Still Hopes For Fruitful Summit
The Swedish EU presidency is still hoping to fix the line-up of the new college of commissioners and the shape of the bloc's future diplomatic service at next week's summit. But the plans hang on a Czech court decision on the Lisbon Treaty. READ MORE
Germany Welcomes Polish Approval Of Lisbon Treaty
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was "delighted" that the Polish had signed the EU's reform treaty, describing Warsaw's move as the "penultimate step" toward the treaty's implementation. READ MORE
