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Where Is German Foreign Policy Heading?
Do A. Merkel and G. Westerwelle want to be remembered as the architects of an "armchair" foreign policy? The nuclear disaster in Fukushima and the decision for air strikes on Lybia: These two recent events are decisive for the current st...
Eastern EU Members "go for color" and accept responsibility for Eastern Partnership countries
For nearly two decades, the Eastern EU Members enjoy the advantage of democracy. Since 2004 all of them are able to enjoy the same benefits as full EU Members. It is time to break that stranglehold of the past of beeing a kind of second-class member...
The European Union and Belarus: "Policy of Critical Engagement"?
General view of the meeting. Foto: Photographic service of the Council of the EU ©European Communities The selective employment of "sticks", namely imposing sanctions until the rest of the EU demands are fulfilled, and "carrots&qu...
Rendez-vous with the last dictatorship in Europe: Belarus
Belarus and the Eastern Partnership The transformation process after the collapse of the Soviet Union leaded to a kind of rapprochement of many Eastern European countries to united Europe. Among the new neighbouring countries after the Eastern enl...
2011 - A Year for the Eastern Partnership?
2011 could be a crucial year for the development of the EU's Eastern Partnership. There are some initial steps towards deeper rapprochement, but 2011 could be a year where the EU and the partner countries should show their will for. Javier Solana...
How will WikiLeaks affect European Diplomacy with Eastern Partner Countries?
WikiLeaks and the "leaked cables" In his post "How will WikiLeaks affect diplomacy?" Jovan Kurbalija made some interesting conclusions of how will WikiLeaks affect diplomacy as a whole: "Probably the only positive impact Wik...
And the winner is...not Moldova!
Moldova is getting less media attention anyway. The elections last Sunday (28 November 2010) were no exception. The parliamentary elections held on 28 November 2010 in Moldova supposed to put Moldova back on European track. However, the election resu...
Macro-Regions: New Tool Emerging for Regional Cooperation
Macro-regions in the European Union. Author: Hr. Hrisoskulov The development of new initiatives for creating new macro-regions in the European Union has recently speeded up considerably, and the range of new fields of regional cooperation is expan...
Moldovan Troubles arising from Transformation
Moldova is one of the smallest and poorest European countries on the immediate border of the European Union. The Sunday early parliamentary elections (28 November 2010) in Moldova may be significant for the future orientation of the country. "...
German-Russian "Change through Rapprochement or just Free Trade"
Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin(Archiv: EU-Russia Summit 17 Mai 2007)Foto: Credit © European Union, 2010 On 23 November 2010, Russia and the European Union agreed upon the modalities of the Russian accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
EU's and Eastern Partners' Autumn 2010: Tipping Point in Terms of Rapprochement?
The Autumn 2010 is a season which promises to be eventful for the multilateral relations between the European Union and the Eastern Partnership countries Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaidshan. However, there are different vo...
The Reluctant Eastern Partner: Ukraine
The European Union hosted the 14th EU-Ukraine Summit in Brusels on 22 November 2010. Herman van Rompuy, José Manuel Barroso, Viktor Yanukovych. Foto: Credit © European Union, 2010 The following three main topics were high on the meeting ag...
Integrating Civil Society - The Case Civil Society Forum and Eastern Partnership
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play crucial role in the society and respectively in their involvement into the every day policy desiscion-making. They provide political input and are active actors in promoting democracy and market-orientated refo...
"Energy 2020" - Energieaußenpolitik am Beispiel der Östlichen Partnerschaft
Am 10. November 2010 legte die Europäische Kommission die lang erwartete Strategie "Energy 2020 - A Strategy for competitive, sustainable and secure energy" vor. Die Kommission nannte in dem Strategiepapier fünf wichtige Schwerpunkte: die...
The Eastern Partnership: Political Framework for Science&Technology Cooperation with the Eastern Neighbours
Eastern Partnership The Eastern Partnership (EaP) has been officially put forward at the meeting of the Council of the European Union on June, 19-20th, 2008 in Brussels: "The European Council welcomes the proposals for developing the eastern d...
Implikationen für die Partnerstaaten im Osten 1.2: Deutsche Ostpolitik
Bevor Bundesaußenminister Guido Westerwelle seine Reise nach Osteuropa (Russland, Litauen und Belarus, Polen und Ungarn) antrat, fasste er die Position Deutschlands zu den östlichen Nachbarn der Europäischen Union in seiner Rede beim Forum des Goe...
Deutschland und die Europäische Union: Reset oder Update?
Deutschland spürt zunehmend die Last seiner Führungsrolle in der Europäischen Union. Die Frage von Ulrike Guérot vom European Council on Foreign Relations "Wie viel Europa darf es sein?" ist legitim und zeitgemäß. In ihrem Papier stel...
Implikationen für die Partnerstaaten im Osten 1.1: Die Ukraine
Am 26. Oktober 2010 traf Catherine Ashton, Hohe Vertreterin der Europäischen Union für Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik, mit dem ukrainischen Außenminister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko in Brüssel im Rahmen des EU-Ukraine Politischen Dialogs auf Ministereb...
Über den Rechtsruck in Europa und den EU-Beitritt der Türkei
Europa im Jahre 2010 rückt nach Rechts! In die Parlamente der Niederlande und Schwedens, einst das Flaggschiff Europas für liberale Ideen und bessere Integration von meistens muslimischen Einwanderern, sind 2010 rechtspopulistische Parteien eing...
