Tag: enlargement -keyword2

Serbia is gradually preparing itself for EU integration, but its quest for membership should not be affected by scepticism among member states or external issues such as the recognition of Kosovo, Ivo Visković, Serbian ambassador to Berlin, told EurActiv Germany in an interview.

Due to its heavy reliance on coal, Poland is often referred to as the country with the greatest potential for green energy. However, the country still lags behind its European partners in clean tech investment, EurActiv Poland reports.

Turkish police detained former heads of the air force and navy among 40 people held in an investigation into an alleged plot to undermine the Islamist-rooted government and trigger a military coup, the authorities announced yesterday (23 February).

The former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia has a "window of opportunity" to solve its long-standing name dispute with Greece, Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle told journalists in Brussels today (17 February). However, he stressed that external help could not act as a substitute for political will in Athens and Skopje.

Smaller states among the EU newcomers need powerful allies among older members if they want to move forward, Dr. Timothy Haughton, senior lecturer on Russian and East European Studies in the University of Birmingham, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview.

The elusiveness of the visit which Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir paid to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso yesterday (4 February) hints at the precariousness of her government at home and abroad, commentators told EurActiv.

To become stronger internationally, Europe must take Turkey on board, Yuhishthir Raj Isar, a professor at the American University in Paris, told EurActiv in an interview.

In Croatia there is a "significant gap" between the political elite, which is "resolutely turned towards EU integration", and public opinion, which is "still lukewarm on the issue," according to Jacques Rupnik, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris. The Balkan specialist spoke to EurActiv France in an interview.

Bilateral issues are creating tension ahead of a crucial meeting today (7 December) of EU foreign affairs ministers, MEP Eduard Kukan, who was Slovakia's foreign minister for over eight years, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Four East European commissioners are finding themselves in competition after their countries expressed preferences for the energy and enlargement portfolios in the next European Commission.

Specialised knowledge of the European Union will no longer be the main focus of tests to recruit EU officials under new guidelines to come into force next year, EurActiv has learned, as the bloc's institutions seek to attract the best talent to Brussels.

Despite calls for it to join earlier, realistically Croatia's EU accession in 2012 would still represent a great success, Mirko Galic, Croatia's ambassador to France, told EurActiv France in an exclusive interview.

As the Swedish EU Presidency prepares to test the ground for the new 'European External Action Service' (EEAS) at the October EU summit next week, the European Parliament rushed to adopt a resolution today (22 October), marking its territory on the future EU diplomatic corps.

Despite until recently being of no political 'colour', Slovakia's newly-appointed EU commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, will represent the social democratic political family in the EU executive, he told EurActiv Slovakia in an exclusive interview.

The EU after the Irish 'yes' to the Lisbon Treaty "can re-engage in what it does best - enlarging while at the same time adapting its institutions to the global challenges it faces," writes Ivan Vejvoda, executive director of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, in an October commentary for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, arguing that "Europe's soft power is alive and active".

The European Union could save up to €40 billion in administrative burdens, according to a package devised by a high-level group for the reduction of such costs, chaired by German conservative Edmund Stoiber.

The approval last week of a state guarantee to repay billions lost by European investors in Icelandic accounts is highly unpopular with Icelandic citizens and will not win the European Union any sympathy on the island nation, Icelandic sources have said.

The Icelandic parliament's recent vote "to apply for membership [of the European Union] was a close run thing – 33 in favour, 28 against – and it would certainly be wrong to underestimate the negotiating difficulties which lie ahead," writes Michael Berendt, a former European Commission official and current public affairs advisor, in a July post on Blogactiv.

Prominent Eastern European MEPs feel their countries are under-represented on European Parliament committee executives, EurActiv has learned. Meanwhile, as horsetrading drew to a close, it emerged that France had punched below its weight, according to experts.

"The EU's security, prosperity and its relationship with Russia are bound up with the well-being of the states in [its] Eastern neighbourhood," write Andrew Wilson and Nicu Popescu in a June paper for the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"I keep bringing the example of the successful EU accession of Bulgaria to the EU to the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina," the head of the European Commission's delegation to the country, Ambassador Dimitris Kourkoulas, told EurActiv in an interview.

Central and Eastern Europe can look forward to a slow recovery in 2010 after hitting the bottom of its economic crisis this year, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) President Thomas Mirow said yesterday (14 May).

Zagreb and Ljubljana must find ways to solve their border dispute, which has become an irritant for the European Union, Croatia's prime minister and his former Slovenian counterpart have told EurActiv.

The mood is changing in Ireland ahead of the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, Pat Cox, the only Irishman to have led the European Parliament (2002-2004), told EurActiv Poland in an exclusive interview.