Eastern Europe Archives

The leaders of the V4 group met on Thursday (16 January) in Prague's renovated national museum to discuss migration, border security, competitiveness, enlargement and climate. The newly appointed Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, also in attendance, said he wanted to "fight" …

In four days, Abkhazia, the breakaway region of Georgia, has seen government buildings smashed, protests to depose the de facto president come to fruition, a court decision that annulled previous elections published and new snap-elections called, a caretaker president appointed and opposition candidacy declared. 

Great wines, bohemian restaurants, breath-taking landscapes, fascinating architecture and vibrant cities are Georgia’s soft power, writes Fraser Cameron.

It appears the South Caucasus is not a foreign policy priority of the new European Commission. But it should be, write Dennis Sammut and Amanda Paul.

After Ukraine's new President Volodymyr Zelenskyi agreed to hold elections in the separatist regions on the Russian border, peace talks with Moscow are regaining momentum. With the assistance of France and Germany, the two countries will return to the negotiation table on 9 December.

Georgia takes over the Presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on Wednesday (27 November). On this occasion, the country's Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani submitted an exclusive op-ed.

In an exclusive interview, the speaker of the Georgian parliament Archil Talakvadze explains the ideas to change the country’s electoral system, why the recent vote wasn’t successful, and the way forward, excluding early elections, as demanded by the opposition. Archil Talakvadze …

Georgia, a country championing economic reform and ranking seventh in the World Bank 'Doing Business' index, gave the floor on 23 October to experienced businessmen to identify ways of further improving the investment climate.

In a wide-ranging interview with EURACTIV, Georgian politician Tamar Chugoshvili speaks of the reactions in her country following the recent EU decision not to open accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, and of Georgia’s plans to remain in the EU orbit nevertheless.

No high-level EU Commission official was to be found at the opening of a two-day Silk Road Forum in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday (22 October), which was attended by 2,000 delegates from some 60 countries, including several EU member states. 

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reiterated Moscow's support for Serbia during a visit to Belgrade on Saturday (19 October) and announced the signing of a free trade agreement between Serbia and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Armenia has a "completely different level of relationship" with the European Union after last year's revolutionary uprising, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan has said, telling EURACTIV any future EU accession is a "question that the people of Armenia need to answer."

A conference organised by EURACTIV on ‘Global Eurasia – connectivity as a driver for peace, stability and security’ raised questions such as “greener” connectivity, in line with Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen’s priorities. But diplomats from the region were more focused on infrastructure.

Armenia's 2018 uprising has paved the way for a "technological revolution" in the country, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said on Monday (7 October), as the Black Sea Economic Cooperation group rallied around the use of technology for regional collaboration.

When NATO's Centre for Strategic Communication in Riga discovered how easy it was to dupe its soldiers online, it has started looking for ways of countering false information, which comes, in large part, from Russia. EURACTIV's media partner der Tagesspiegel reports.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov supports the resumption of direct flights from Russia to Georgia that Moscow suspended in July, the Kommersant daily cited him as saying in an interview published on Wednesday (25 September).

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a government proposal to bankroll the modernisation of the armed forces in the occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia, a government document published online showed on Monday (23 September).

In line with EU aims to deepen relations with the Eastern Partnership countries, EU and Georgian officials on Monday (16 September) launched a European School in Tbilisi, the first educational institution of this kind launched beyond the bloc’s boundaries.

The ambassador of the EU to Georgia called “unacceptable” on Friday (30 August) the tensions and confrontational language at the “border” between Georgia and its occupied territory of South Ossetia.

Unresolved conflicts in Georgia don’t serve the interest of local populations on either side of the artificial divide and may not serve Russia’s own interests in long term, writes Ketevan Tsikhelashvili.

As the EU suffers from “enlargement fatigue”, perhaps the European Economic Area membership will prove a useful stepping stone for Georgia in its rightful quest to join the Union, writes Fraser Cameron.

Tensions have worsened between Budapest and Kyiv over a Ukrainian language law, which Hungary considers hostile to its minority population in the Transcarpathia region

There is a high consensus in Moldova that we want good relations with Brussels and Moscow, but we have no alternative to strong pro-European integration, Moldova's new foreign minister, Nicu Popescu, told EURACTIV.com in an exclusive interview.

A leading opposition politician has accused the Georgian government of pro-Russian bias, tacitly condoned by the EU, but representatives of the ruling party, as well as diplomats, insist there is a consensus on big geopolitical matters and the entire country is pro-Western.