Eastern Europe Archives

Despite the Russian occupation, COVID-19 and the economic recession in the world, Georgia continues to strengthen its democracy – the government is currently preparing for Parliamentary elections scheduled for October 2020, writes Archil Talakvadze.

The Kremlin has become entrenched in a war of words with Europe over the legacy of World War II, as both sides accuse each other of cynically rewriting history for political gain.

Georgia hopes it will "quite soon formally get a statement about the so-called European perspective", the executive secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party and former chairman of the Eastern European country's parliament told EURACTIV in an interview.

For every Hong Kong, with all the difficulties played out in the global media, there is a Georgia where the slow advance and entrenchment of liberal democracy is often barely witnessed beyond the Western Embassies in Tbilisi, argues Andrew Rosindell. Andrew …

Georgia is becoming, once again, a country to be watched by those who value liberty and the expansion of freedom and prosperity, writes Krassen Stanchev.

As the EU is discussing the way to develop the Eastern Partnership policy for the decade ahead, it is time for the EU to finally become more ambitious about the security dimension of this partnership, three former Eastern Partnership foreign …

EU foreign ministers are discussing China on Friday (29 May), as the country started to back Russian narratives of Washington-led biological weapon development in Georgia and other post-Soviet countries. One widely circulating allegation in the internet during the pandemic claimed that …

The US National Security Agency on Thursday (28 May) warned government partners and private companies about a Russian hacking operation that uses a special intrusion technique to target operating systems often used by industrial firms to manage computer infrastructure.

Safety requires cancelling public festivities but Georgians are marking their National Day by celebrating individually in their hearts and standing together in solidarity, writes David Zalkaliani.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán expects that his government will be able to give back to the national parliament at the end of May the sweeping powers enacted during the coronavirus crisis, state news agency MTI quoted him as saying during a visit to Serbia on Friday (15 May).

EU institutions must continue to ensure that countries such pro-European as Georgia see the European Union as their ultimate goal, writes Paul L. Vandoren.

While European societies take stock on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic on the EU, it has been increasingly common to hear that the pandemic proved the need for the EU to be more strategically sovereign. No doubt about that. But the real test for EU power and its strategic sovereignty won’t be in masks, but on how the EU deals with external problems, not least in its neighbourhood, write Nicu Popescu and Gustav Gressel.

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, confirmed that his first visit following the easing of coronavirus-related restrictions will be to Ukraine, in a bid to affirm the EU's leadership in the region.

While pro-Russian separatists in occupied Georgian territory are taking advantage of the COVID-19 outbreak to press on with illegal borderisation, the population of these areas puts hopes in the success of Tbilisi in fighting the pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday (15 April) it was ready to provide Georgia with increased funding of $450 million this year to help the ex-Soviet country in its fight against the coronavirus and support the economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting societies, economies, families and persons alike, is compounded by a global contagion of rumours, conspiracies, fake news and other deadly narratives that, despite their appearance of being tailored to fit local characteristics, are strikingly similar at a transnational level, writes Alina Bargaoanu.

The ongoing coronavirus crisis is feeding into the narrative that the EU is “turning its back” on the Western Balkans, the European External Action Service (EEAS) said in an updated report on ongoing disinformation campaigns surrounding the pandemic, published on Wednesday (1 April).

The EU on Monday (30 March) announced nearly €40 million to help Western Balkan countries deal with the coronavirus, after Brussels came under fire for not doing enough for its neighbours.

Distance should not be a criterion: Georgia is better prepared for EU membership than the frontrunners of the Western Balkans, writes Andrius Kubilius.

Since reporting its first case of coronavirus on 26 February, Georgia has had only 61 confirmed cases of the virus as of 23 March. With 3,320 people placed in mandatory quarantines, the Caucasian country is being lauded as a success story in the global fight against the pandemic.

Spring has arrived in Tbilisi but its picturesque old town -- a whimsical mixture of Art Nouveau buildings and medieval churches -- is gloomy.

European parliamentarians hailed on Tuesday (10 March) the political agreement between Georgian ruling and opposition parties that promises to resolve the electoral reform conflict that resulted a series of protests in the country. 

As associated countries of Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova ask for a more ambitious Eastern Partnership (EaP) policy, the debate continues about the next steps and available financial support for what is lauded as one of the EU's most successful foreign policies.

Georgia's foreign ministry announced on Thursday (20 February) that a massive cyber-attack had taken place against its state institutions and media, and that investigations have shown that Russia was responsible for it. “On 28 October 2019, a large scale cyber-attack was …