Europe-East articles from October 2007

Europe-East archives from October 2007

EU/CYPRUS : BARROT: TURKISH SHIPPING BAN MUST BE TACKLED.
October 25, 2007... Turkey's embargo on Cypriot ships is a problem not only for Cyprus but also for the European Union and Turkey itself, said Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Transport Jacques Barrot at the opening of the Maritime...

EU/UNECE : BELGRADE HOSTS SIXTH ENVIRONMENT FOR EUROPE' CONFERENCE.(Europe)(United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.)
October 25, 2007... Between 10 and 12 October, Belgrade hosted the sixth ministerial conference on Environment for Europe', organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Environment ministers updated the situation as to progress made on...

EU/TURKEY : BUSINESSMEN: EU SUPPORT NEEDED FOR ANKARA'S EFFORTS AT REFORM.
October 25, 2007... Turkey's business community is appealing to the European Union for its support for the country's reforming efforts. "Turkey has to get some positive energy from the EU capitals," said Rifat Hisarciklioglu, president of the Union of Chambers and...

EU/MACEDONIA : COMMISSION DISMAYED AT VIOLENCE IN MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The Commission has condemned the violence between ethnic Albanian Macedonian lawmakers as well as physical assaults on journalists and cameramen, which took place on the premises of the Macedonian parliament. The EU executive warned Macedonian...

EU/TURKISH CYPRIOT COMMUNITY : COMMISSION: PARTS OF TURKISH CYPRIOT AID REGULATION IN JEOPARDY.
October 25, 2007... A total of 14.5 million was spent, between 27 February 2006 and 28 February 2007, out of the 259 million allocated by the Council in February 2006 to encourage the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community (Regulation 389/2006)....

ENERGY : COMMISSION'S LIBERALISATION PACKAGE DRAWS WIDE RANGE OF REACTIONS.
October 25, 2007... Bureaucratic, stupid, dangerous, unpractical, and even undemocratica- these are some of the adjectives flying around following the adoption, on 19 September, of the European Commission's third package of proposed regulations to further...

EU/WESTERN BALKANS : COURT OF AUDITORS PRAISES COMMISSION'S MANAGEMENT OF CARDS.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... According to the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the European Commission was on the whole successful in effectively managing the Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation (CARDS) programme in the Western Balkans...

CYPRUS REUNIFICATION : CYPRIOT LEADERS PRESENT FRESH PROPOSALS TO RE-LAUNCH DIALOGUE.
October 25, 2007... In a bid to break the prolonged stalemate in the UN process aiming at the reunification of the island of Cyprus, President Tassos Papadopoulos has proposed a new eight-point plant to revive bilateral dialogue with the Turkish Cypriot Community....

EU/CYPRUS/TURKEY : CYPRUS WARNS ANKARA NOT TO FURTHER OBSTRUCT PEACE PROCESS.
October 25, 2007... Speaking at the UN General Assembly on 26 September in New York, Cyprus's President Tassos Papadopoulos accused Turkey of a lack of goodwill and real motivation to solve the Cyprus problem' and warned Ankara that its stance on the issue might...

EU/CROATIA : DROBNJAK: ZAGREB READY FOR HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON ECO-ZONE.
October 25, 2007... Croatia is willing to take part in a special high-level meeting with Slovenia and Italy, as proposed recently by the European Commission, to solve the urgent problem of Croatia's self-proclaimed Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone (ZERP)...

EUROZONE : ECB MAINTAINS A CAUTIOUS APPROACH.
October 25, 2007... With its decision not to change its key rates (from their present level of 4%), on 4 October, the European Central Bank confirmed the expectations of markets, which were counting on the status quo. By postponing yet again a possible rate hike...

ENERGY DIALOGUE WITH RUSSIA.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The European Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs, has confirmed that dialogue with Russia, one of the EU's main energy suppliers, was "essential". On 2 October, at the opening of a forum organised by the Mario Soares Foundation, in which...

ENERGY : EU AND RUSSIA MEET TO CATALOGUE DIFFERENCES.
October 25, 2007... During their meeting in Brussels on 16 October, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and his Russian counterpart, Viktor Khristenko, made a valiant but apparently ineffectual attempt to keep the momentum of the EU-Russia energy dialogue. The aim...

EU/KOSOVO : EU DEFENCE MINISTERS CALL FOR FALLBACK PLAN ON KOSOVO.
October 25, 2007... The EU's defence ministers, meeting on 28-29 September in Evora (Portugal), agreed that the Union needs a fallback plan in case the talks on Kosovo's status end up in fiasco again. "International actors, especially those involved in the talks,...

EU/KOSOVO : EU DEPLORES "TRAGIC EXPLOSION" IN PRISTINA.
October 25, 2007... The EU has condemned a bomb explosion that has killed two people and injured eleven in the centre of Pristina, the capital of Serbia's would-be breakaway province, on 24 September. "We deplore the loss of all human lives," Krisztina Nagy,...

EU EASES SANCTIONS ON UZBEKISTAN.
October 25, 2007... The EU's foreign ministers decided, on 15 October, to renew for 12 months the arms embargo against Uzbekistan but suspend for six months the visa restrictions against the country's high officials. During the next six months, the European Union...

EU/WESTERN BALKANS : EU PUTS OFF CONCLUSION OF PRE-ACCESSION DEALS WITH SERBIA AND BIH.
October 25, 2007... Contrary to what was expected, EU foreign ministers have not given their green light to the initialling of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia at the Council meeting on 15 October in Luxembourg. "The glass is rather half...

EU/RUSSIA : EUROCHAMBRES CALLS FOR CLOSER EU-RUSSIA ECONOMIC TIES.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The EICC (First Euro Info Correspondent Center) was opened on 27 September in Russia (Moscow), with the participation of Eurochambres' Secretary-General Arnaldo Abruzzini. During the event, Abruzzini called on the EU and Russia to "take...

EU/MEDITERRANEAN : EURO-MED SUMMIT CALLS FOR GREATER CIVIL SOCIETY INVOLVEMENT.(Euro-Mediterranean Summit of Economic and Social Councils.)(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... Civil society should be given a greater role in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), said the Euro-Mediterranean Summit of Economic and Social Councils and similar institutions, which took place on 15-16 October 2007 in Athens. Participants...

EU-RUSSIA SUMMIT : EU SETS OBJECTIVES FOR LAST RENDEZ-VOUS' WITH PUTIN.
October 25, 2007... The upcoming EU-Russia summit in Mafra on 26 October might turn out interesting. It will be the last meeting between the EU and Vladimir Putin as Russia's president. No one expects the Russian leader to positively surprise Europe on this...

EU/MONTENEGRO : EU SIGNS PRE-MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH PODGORICA.
October 25, 2007... The EU has signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) - the gateway to EU membership' - with Montenegro. "The signature of the SAA is an important milestone in relations between the EU and Montenegro," said the Enlargement...

ENERGY : EU UNVEILS UNBUNDLING PLANS AND PROTECTIVE MEASURES.
October 25, 2007... The European Commission, on 19 September, adopted a series of proposals for further liberalisation of the Union's electricity and gas markets. Amending the June 2003 directives on gas and electricity, the Commission proposes full ownership...

EU/UKRAINE : EU WELCOMES UKRAINE'S NEW COALITION.(european union)(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The European Union has hailed the swift formation of a new government in Ukraine and urged the new executive to step up political and economic reforms in the country. "I welcome the announcement of the formation of a coalition following...

EVALUATING THE EU'S CRISIS MISSIONS IN THE BALKANS'.(european union)(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... This book evaluates the EU's first military and civilian crisis management operations in the Western Balkans, focusing on lessons learned in the military and police missions to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to Macedonia. The authors have conducted...

ENERGY SECURITY : GAZPROM AND UKRAINE SIGN GAS DEBT DEAL.
October 25, 2007... In a brief statement, Russia's state gas giant Gazprom announced, on 9 October, the signature of an agreement with Ukrainian companies to settle US$1.3 billion in debt owed by Ukrainian companies for gas supplied in 2007. Gazprom confirmed that...

EU/BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA : INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY URGES BIH TO STEP UP REFORMS.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The Contact Group involved in negotiating the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995, which brought peace and stability to Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) following the war in 1992, expressed its concern about the lack of progress in the implementation of...

EU/TURKEY : KOUCHNER: "TURKEY AND FRANCE HAVE A LOT TO SHARE".
October 25, 2007... French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said that his country wants to seek closer ties with Turkey, despite differences of views between Ankara and Paris on Turkey's EU membership bid. "Our two countries may not agree on every issue...

EU/RUSSIA : MANDELSON SLAMS MOSCOW FOR VIOLATING 2004 AGREEMENT.
October 25, 2007... EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has called on Russia to show political will to resolve the last outstanding bilateral issues with the EU ahead of next week's summit, paving the way to Moscow's long-awaited accession to the World Trade...

EU/TURKEY : MEPS WANT COMMISSION'S REPORT ON TURKEY TO SEEK "SOLUTIONS".
October 25, 2007... Following two years of often turbulent though generally rather sluggish accession negotiations between the EU and Turkey, the European Parliament has proposed a new method for assessing the progress Ankara makes in its EU membership bid. The...

IMMIGRATION : MEPS WANT WIDER REMIT FOR FRONTEX.
October 25, 2007... The need for EU member states to cooperate better in the way they tackle illegal immigration, and for the Union to attract more highly skilled legal migrants, were two of the main issues addressed by MEPs in a set of reports adopted on 26...

MOSCOW TO SEEK WTO BACKING?
October 25, 2007... Russia will carefully study the rules of the World Trade Organisation, which it is still not a member of, to see if they are compatible with the reform of the energy sector that the European Commission is preparing, said the country's main...

ENLARGEMENT : NEW TREATY GIVES MEMBER STATES AN EXIT CLAUSE FOR FIRST TIME.
October 25, 2007... Despite growing enlargement fatigue' among EU citizens following the big bang' enlargement in May 2004 and the smaller scale enlargement in 2007, EU leaders have decided not to toughen up accession criteria for potential newcomers. But for...

EU/KAZAKHSTAN : PIEBALGS MEETS KAZAKH ENERGY MINISTER.
October 25, 2007... The EU's troubled relations with Kazakhstan were replayed in Brussels on 20 September when Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs met Kazakh Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sauat Mynbayev. Kazakhstan is seeking to relegate Italian energy...

EU/UKRAINE : PRO-WESTERN ALLIANCE WINS UKRAINE ELECTIONS.
October 25, 2007... According to official final results of the early parliamentary elections held in Ukraine on 30 September, the pro-Russian alliance of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions (PR) received 34.37% of the vote, and thus finished ahead...

EU/KOSOVO/SERBIA : SOLANA: KOSOVO, SERBIA BECOMING "MORE ENGAGED" IN STATUS TALKS.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The second face-to-face meeting between representatives of Serbia and Kosovo on 14 October in Brussels has yielded little in terms of concrete results. High-level officials from Belgrade and Pristina failed once again to break the deadlock over...

EU/UKRAINE : SOLANA URGES STABLE GOVERNMENT IN KIEV.(Javier Solana)(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... Following the early elections on 30 September, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana has urged the Ukrainian party leaders to start as soon as possible talks on the formation of a new government. "The sooner the government is formed, the...

TURKEY AND EUROPE: THE WAY AHEAD'.( www.crisisgroup.org)(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The report argues that the pro-reform AK Party's resounding victory in the July 2007 parliamentary elections gives both the party and the European Union a chance to relaunch Turkey's accession process, which has floundered since 2005 due to the...

TWO NEW CHAPTERS OPENED WITH CROATIA.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... The Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) has approved the opening of two new membership chapters with Croatia. Despite initial reservations expressed by Slovenia, the Coreper decided, on 11 October, to give its assent to the opening...

ENERGY SECURITY : UKRAINE'S GAZPROM DEBT THREATENS COLD WINTER FOR ALL.
October 25, 2007... Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych promised, on 3 October, to work towards a solution with Russia over unpaid gas deliveries. To this end, Yanukovych's Energy Minister, Yuriy Boyko, was already in Moscow for preliminary talks with...

EU/MOLDOVA : VISA FACILITATION AND READMISSION AGREEMENTS SIGNED.(Brief article)
October 25, 2007... Concluding eight months of negotiations, the European Union signed on 10 October visa facilitation and readmission agreements with Moldova, which aim at making people-to-people contacts easier and improving the management of illegal migration...

EU/RUSSIA : WARSAW CALLS FOR TOUGH APPROACH TO RUSSIA AT MAFRA SUMMIT.
October 25, 2007... Poland, which has been affected by the Russian ban on its meat and plant products for almost two years, is urging the Portuguese EU Presidency to adopt a firm position towards Russia at the upcoming EU-Russia summit on 26 October in Mafra...

EU/CROATIA : ZAGREB'S ACCESSION TALKS IN JEOPARDY OVER FISHERY ZONE DISPUTE.
October 25, 2007... The European Commission sees the need for a last-ditch high-level meeting between Croatia, Italy and Slovenia to solve the urgent problem of Croatia's self-proclaimed Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone (ZERP) in the disputed Gulf of Piran...

EU/CROATIA : ZAGREB SAYS ECO-ZONE DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE EU VESSELS.
October 25, 2007... Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has said that the special Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone (ZERP) in the Adriatic Sea proclaimed by her country's parliament and scheduled to be activated on 1 January 2008 did not...