Tag: Foreign Affairs

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has completed the appointments for 28 top officials at the European External Action Service, with only two women appearing on the list, according to a document seen by EurActiv.

The US Congress and the European Parliament could hold parallel hearings and produce a joint communiqué on crucial raw materials as part of efforts to cooperate on areas of strategic interest, according to a senior Washington policymaker.

"2010 will be decisive in terms of whether Obama keeps his promise of change," writes Marcin Zaborowski, senior research fellow at the Centre for International Studies, in an April paper.

The birth of the European External Action Service, one of the most anticipated innovations of the Lisbon Treaty, will be a difficult one, admitted a top European Commission official yesterday (4 March).

A burgeoning middle class and expanding green industries make India an attractive proposition for expanding European firms. However, understanding local business culture and laws is the difference between success and failure, Poul Jensen, director of the European Business and Technology Centre in India, told EurActiv in an interview.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende had little to do with initial planning of the Netherlands' participation in the Iraq war, a 550-page report concluded on Tuesday (12 January).

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has said on several occasions that "the production, stockpiling, and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam," observes European Policy Centre (EPC) founding chair Stanley Crossick in a recent post on Blogactiv.

The EU's new foreign policy initiative, the Eastern Partnership (EaP), was written in "ambitious terms", but must show greater sensitivity to the intricacies of its target region, argues Helen Wallace of the London School of Economics (LSE) in a paper for the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).

2009 "offers unique opportunities for a common EU foreign policy towards [Belarus], which faces financial and economic hardship," argues Patrick Gilroy of the University of Düsseldorf in a March paper.

"China sees the European Union as a possible balance to the United States," argues Dingli Shen, deputy director and professor from the Centre of American Studies in Fudan University, in the autumn edition of Europe's World.

The war in Georgia divided the EU instead of uniting it, while differences between its members' positions will thwart the bloc's attempts to develop a common Russia policy, writes Tomas Valasek in an August paper for the Centre for European Reform (CER).

Despite the recent past being a "miserable time for political relations between Russia and both the EU and the US," the prospect of new leadership is expected to "transform the current state of affairs," writes Michael Emerson of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in a May 2008 paper.