Central Asia Archives

Public health authorities responded well in the face of the H1N1 flu pandemic but must learn to be more flexible and transparent, Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO regional director for Europe, told EURACTIV in an interview.

The EU-favoured Nabucco gas pipeline focuses on gas imported from Turkmenistan, but the authoritarian state cannot be a reliable partner, Michael Laubsch, an expert on Central Asia, told EURACTIV Germany in an exclusive interview.

The severe turmoil that some countries experienced during the financial crisis has slowed down liberalisation of energy markets in East European, says Gabor Szorenyi, chairman of the energy regulators regional association for central and Eastern Europe. But the road to liberalisation must continue, he adds, despite legitimate concerns regarding energy poverty in those countries.

Despite the economic downturn, European governments last year continued to implement reforms that make it easier to set up small businesses, according to a new benchmarking report published today by the World Bank. EURACTIV spoke to World Bank adviser Neil Gregory, who supervised the study.

Despite the need to come up with a global climate deal by the end of the year in Copenhagen, diplomats involved in the negotiations are not making enough progress, India's special envoy on climate change, Shyam Saran, told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

There is "little appetite" today in the Western world to monitor Russia's "influence operations" and "active measures" vis-à-vis the EU, Ariel Cohen, a senior researcher with the conservative US Heritage Foundation, told EURACTIV in an interview.

Significant progress has been achieved with Turkey on moving forward the Nabucco gas pipeline project, Reinhard Mitschek, managing director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, told the Dnevnik daily, EURACTIV's partner in Bulgaria.

The fact that the economies of the US and EU countries are at different stages of recession explains their differences over how to respond to the crisis, Graham Watson, leader of the European Liberal Democrats group in the European Parliament, told EURACTIV in an interview.

"Europe is making a serious mistake by relying heavily on Russia as a source of gas," argues former Ukrainian foreign minister Boris Tarasyuk in an interview with EURACTIV Slovakia.

The Georgian crisis and the current financial crisis show that the EU needs an avant-garde capable of reacting because the alternative would be "to do nothing," former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer told EURACTIV in an interview.

The potential for further energy cooperation between the countries of North Africa and the EU is 'obvious' as the bloc seeks to diversify its sources of supply, but future energy relations between the two regions should be at company rather than state level, said Professor Jean-Marie Chevalier of Paris-Dauphine University in an interview with EURACTIV France.

Europe's strategy to combat HIV/AIDS in its neighbouring countries is mere words on paper and EU investment being put behind the response to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in these countries is far from being enough, argues the executive director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

In an exclusive interview with EURACTIV Romania, Transparency International's regional director Miklos Marschall assesses Romania's record in combatting corruption and spells out his recommendations.

It is not impossible to fight the corruption problem in the new Member States, but the EU has neither the tools nor a coherent strategy, says Miklos Marschall of Transparency International in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV.