Europe-East articles from November 2008

Europe-East archives from November 2008

TURKEY : ACCESSION TALKS MAY HIT SNAG NEXT YEAR.
November 18, 2008... Any further prolongation of the political instability in Turkey, which has been undermining the country's EU reform agenda, would lead to a complete suspension of accession talks in 2009, an EU official has warned. "If Turkey does not step up...

STATE OF PLAY : A GLASS HALF-FULL AND HALF-EMPTY.
November 18, 2008... Looking at progress the Western Balkans and Turkey made last year on their EU membership bid, one can say that the glass is half-full and half-empty at the same time. Despite some unfavourable conditions, both within the EU (delay in...

WESTERN BALKANS : FURTHER MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS LOOMING.
November 18, 2008... The European Commission may say with satisfaction that, despite some unfavourable conditions both within the EU and in the Balkans, it has stuck to its plan, which has foreseen covering the whole Western Balkan region with Stabilisation and...

CROATIA : QUESTION MARKS SURROUND 2009 ACCESSION TARGET.
November 18, 2008... Croatia is likely to reach the final stage of its accession talks in 2009, provided it meets in the coming months all the necessary benchmarks, according to the European Commission's progress report, to be published on 5 November. However,...

CROATIA : THREE QUESTIONS TO MEP HANNES SWOBODA.(Interview)
November 18, 2008... MEP Hannes Swoboda (PES, Austria) is the European Parliament's rapporteur on Croatia. How do you estimate Croatia's chances of finishing accession talks by November 2009? It depends on progress on three issues: the reform of state...

TURKEY : THREE QUESTIONS TO MEP JOOST LAGENDIJK.(Interview)
November 18, 2008... MEP Joost Lagendijk (Greens-EFA, Netherlands) is chair of the Delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee. Turkey's EU accession negotiations proceed very slowly. Who is to be blamed? There is very often confusion about...

LISBON TREATY : TREATY IMPORTANT BUT NOT ESSENTIAL FOR FURTHER ENLARGEMENT.
November 18, 2008... The hopes are high that the Lisbon Treaty will be ratified by the five remaining member states (Ireland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland and Sweden(1)) in 2009 and the text will thus enter into force in 2010, enabling the smooth accession...

SERBIA : UNILATERAL IMPLEMENTATION OF INTERIM AGREEMENT KEY TO EU BID.(Stabilisation and Association Agreement)(European Union)
November 18, 2008... The prolonged delay in the ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) by the European Union is reducing Serbia's chances to receive candidate status in 2009, according to EU sources. In order to eliminate this threat and...

ATHENS SET TO BLOCK SKOPJE'S EU BID.(Brief article)
November 18, 2008... Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis has reiterated that Athens will not allow the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to join the European Union and NATO until a settlement was found to the name dispute' between the two countries. "Only...

IMMIGRATION : COMMISSION ADOPTS TEN NATIONAL PROGRAMMES.
November 18, 2008... After adoption of the political declaration represented by the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum, the time for budgetary realities has arrived. The European Commission adopted, on 6 November, ten national programmes with their respective...

EASTERN PARTNERSHIP : COMMISSION PROPOSES BRINGING SIX NEIGHBOURS CLOSER TO EU.
November 18, 2008... Association agreements, free trade deals, visa-free regime, a framework for multilateral cooperation and increased financial assistance are the main elements of the European Commission's proposal on the Eastern Partnership (EP), to be published...

ENLARGEMENT : COMMISSION SETS BUSY AGENDA FOR 2009.
November 18, 2008... The conclusion of talks with Croatia, the granting of candidate status to Serbia and possibly to some other Western Balkan countries (Albania and Montenegro are next in line), and the conclusion of talks on visa liberalisation with all the...

EU/RUSSIA : COMMISSION WOULD UNFREEZE TALKS WITH MOSCOW.(European Union)
November 18, 2008... If the EU wants to influence the course of events, the negotiations with Russia on the new partnership agreement, put on hold on 1 September, should continue, said the European Commission in its communication on the review of relations with...

ESDP OPERATIONS/BOSNIA : DECISION ON FUTURE OF ALTHEA PUSHED BACK TO SPRING.(European Security and Defence Policy )
November 18, 2008... The future of the military operation in Bosnia is an increasingly delicate question for the EU's political decision makers. Though during their informal meeting in Deauville in October, EU defence ministers agreed that the operation's military...

EIB OPENS OFFICES IN TURKEY.(European Investment Bank)(Brief article)
November 18, 2008... The European Investment Bank announced, on 24 October, that it has opened its regional representations in Ankara and Istanbul. This will further strengthen the EIB's responsiveness to the financing needs of public and private clients in Turkey...

EU/BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA : EP RINGS WARNING BELL ON POLITICAL STALEMATE IN BIH.(Bosnia and Herzegovina)(European Union)
November 18, 2008... The European Parliament has sounded the alarm over the prolonged political stalemate in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which is dragging the country away from the European Union. "The situation could not be worse," said Doris Pack (EPP-ED,...

EU/RUSSIA : EU HAILS MOSCOW'S DECISION TO DELAY TIMBER DUTY HIKE.
November 18, 2008... The EU welcomed, on 12 November, the announcement made by Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the postponement by nine to 12 months of a planned increase on export duties on raw timber. "Considering the fact that reduction of exports...

IMMIGRATION : EUROPEAN REGIONS READY TO BETTER INTEGRATE MIGRANTS.
November 18, 2008... Stuck between national competences and local realities, Europe's regions are committed to acting in several fields to improve the integration conditions for their migrants. Under the momentum of their new President, French Socialist Michele...

EU/BIH : EU TO TAKE ACTIVE ROLE IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA.(Bosnia and Herzegovina)(European Union)
November 18, 2008... "Deeply concerned" about the deteriorating political situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the European Union has decided to take an active role in helping to break the current stalemate in the country. To this end, the EU's foreign ministers...

NICE SUMMIT : FINANCIAL CRISIS: POSITIONS OF EU AND RUSSIA OVERLAP.
November 18, 2008... Ahead of the international summit of the world's leading developed and developing economies on the financial crisis in Washington, the EU and Russia took a common view of the need for far-reaching global financial market reforms."Russia's...

EU/RUSSIA : FOREIGN MINISTERS RUBBER STAMP RESUMPTION OF TALKS WITH RUSSIA.
November 18, 2008... The EU foreign ministers gave, on 10 November, the European Commission a green light to resume talks with Russia on a new partnership agreement despite firm opposition from Lithuania. "Twenty-six out of 27 countries [in favour of the resumption...

IMMIGRATION : FRANCE WANTS SOLUTIONS TO FAILED INTEGRATION POLICIES.
November 18, 2008... "Integration policies have failed on the whole." With that severe verdict, French Integration Minister Brice Hortefeux urged fellow ministers to come up with "new solutions" by comparing their experiences, at the opening of a European...

ICELANDICS WOULD FAVOUR EU MEMBERSHIP.
November 18, 2008... According to a poll published, on 27 October, in the Icelandic press, 68.8% of the island's population would like their country to apply for EU membership (compared with 55.1% in February). Within the government coalition, which has been in...

ICELAND STUDYING EU MEMBERSHIP.(European Union)(Brief article)
November 18, 2008... The government of Iceland might decide on the country's application for EU membership as early as at the beginning of next year. The ruling Independence Party, which has long been opposed to joining the EU, has decided to raise this issue at...

EU/UKRAINE : KIEV OPENS TALKS ON VISA-FREE REGIME WITH EU.
November 18, 2008... On 29 October, Ukraine opened talks with the European Union on a visa-free regime. The country's aim is to have the new system in place by the time it co-hosts the 2012 European Football Championships. "For us, it is absolutely clear that...

IMMIGRATION : MEPS BACK SANCTIONS AGAINST EMPLOYERS OF ILLEGAL MIGRANTS.
November 18, 2008... The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee voted overwhelmingly in favour of two reports which lay the groundwork for chosen immigration' in the EU, on 4 November in Brussels. It is a question of creating a European blue card', which...

EU/MEDITERRANEAN : MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT GROUNDS MED UNION.
November 18, 2008... Four months after the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean, Nicolas Sarkozy's "grand plan" has been hijacked by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and it still struggles to take off. EU foreign ministers and their counterparts from the south...

ICELAND : REYKJAVIK NEXT IN LINE FOR EU MEMBERSHIP?
November 18, 2008... Iceland could accompany Croatia in accession to the European Union in 2011, should the country decide to apply for membership in the near future. According to experts, Reykjavik would need approximately one year to complete the accession talks...

ENERGY EFFICIENCY : RUSSIANS SPELL OUT THEIR COMMITMENTS.
November 18, 2008... A delegation of the European Parliament's Climate Change Committee completed a series of meetings on energy efficiency and climate issues in Moscow, on 29 October. EP delegation leader Vittorio Prodi (ALDE, Italy) urged Russia to continue as a...

ENLARGEMENT : SLOVENIA BLOCKS CROATIA'S EU TALKS.
November 18, 2008... Catching Zagreb and the EU's officials by surprise, Slovenia has blocked progress on five negotiating chapters with Croatia, citing the two countries' prolonged border dispute. According to EU diplomatic sources, the four chapters are advanced...

EU/CROATIA : SLOVENIA UPHOLDS VETO ON ZAGREB'S ACCESSION TALKS.(European Union)(Brief article)
November 18, 2008... Slovenia has upheld its decision to put on hold EU accession talks on several chapters with Croatia, saying that due to some disagreements between the two countries over the border issue', progress on them is not possible at the moment....

INTERVIEW WITH JAN TRUSZCZYNSKI, DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF DG ENLARGEMENT : "WE HAVE SEEN GOOD PROGRESS IN CROATIA OVER PAST YEAR".(Interview)
November 18, 2008... In an interview with Europolitics New Neighbours, the Deputy Director-General of the European Commission's DG Enlargement, Jan Truszczynski, presents a broad outline of the current state of play in the EU integration process of Turkey and the...

EU/CROATIA : ZAGREB CLOSES ONE POLICY CHAPTER.(European Union)(Brief article)
November 18, 2008... Amid tensions over the unresolved border issue' between Slovenia and Croatia, the European Union rubber-stamped, on 30 October, the closing of one chapter (on external relations) in Zagreb's EU accession talks. Four other chapters ready for...