World Archives

The Ukranian Parliamentary elections on Sunday (28 October) will not trigger improved relations between the EU and Ukraine. In fact they could make them worse, says Roman Rukomeda.

Since global economic ties are so closely meshed and dependent jobs are so numerous, a market intervention in the form of trade barriers would have fatal consequences for the European solar industry, writes Thorsten Preugschas.

While there is significant disagreement within the Kremlin about how to deal with Sofia's challenge, Moscow is running out of ways to push Bulgaria into fast-tracking its commitment to South Stream, says Stratfor.

Fast advantages from a proposed customs union with Russia will become an irresistible temptation for Ukrainian politicians in comparison with the uncertain prospects of the EU's 'Eastern Partnership' and Association Agreement, writes Viktor Tkachuk.

If Europe does not face down Beijing over its export of below-cost solar panels, all our green technology and manufacturing will be lost, and the costs for greenhouse gas mitigation will go up, argues Milan Nitzschke.

The geopolitical impact of the Nord Stream project has prompted Russia to accelerate its strategy of sidelining what it sees as problematic transit states through expensive direct pipelines to its consumer markets, writes Stratfor.

A transatlantic trade agreement can give new hope for growth and a more positive agenda in the devastating eurocrisis, writes Raymond Gradus.

Some political experts say the victory of the Georgian Dream coalition in the recent parliamentary election can lead to the curtailment of reforms introduced by President Mikheil Saakashvili government, writes Lidiya Smola.

To succeed on the European market, Chinese investors should go European when in Europe, argues Weinian Hu. They should emulate the European practices of campaigning and lobbying to address issues that affect their investment interests.

The Lisbon Treaty introduced a major institutional innovation in the field of external relations by creating a common diplomatic service, the European External Action Service (EEAS). During the past 20 months this service has progressively been set up. With some 3,000 officials and an annual budget of around €500 million, it is still small but unique in its talents and language skills.

There is no stronger motive today to unify Europe than the growing emergence of China, writes Pierre Defraigne.

Human rights organisations have asked the EU's new Special Representative for Human Rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, to raise Tibet with China’s prime minister on the margins of the next EU-China Summit, due to take place in Brussels on 20 September.

With a eurozone crisis and other challenges to deal with, why has German Chancellor Angela Merkel taken such an interest in tiny Moldova? One reason is that Moldova is sitting on the borders of the EU and the unresolved conflict there remains dangerous and unstable. Another is that Merkel wanted to use the frozen conflict in Transnistria as a test case for Berlin’s relations with the Kremlin, writes Judy Dempsey.

As Europe's political and economic weight declines and Turkey is consolidated as a regional power, cooperation on economic issues will be increasingly supplemented by cooperation in other areas in order to maintain a geopolitical balance in the region and limit the presence of external players, says Stratfor.

US Secretary of state Hilary Clinton continues to visit states that pose security concerns for Russia. Moscow will have to react in Finland and Latvia to make sure they do not take irreversible steps that would harm Russia's interests, says Stratfor.

Despite having a number of reasons to want the EU to break up, Washington knows that a European meltdown could destabilise the United States. Therefore, keeping the Europeans in a state of long-term unease is acceptable to the United States, says Stratfor.

Military tensions have grown in recent weeks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Charles Tannock argues that the EU should take steps to diffuse the situation.

There are clear signs of competition between the European Union and China to gain access to the strategic assets of Greenland, and they will continue to show during Hu Jintao's state visit in Denmark these days, argues Damien Degeorges.

Due to its geography and geopolitics, Greece will be in play for years to come, argues Robert D. Kaplan.

The geography of the first official visits of Russian President Vladimir Putin illustrates the priority status of his project for a Eurasian Union, argues Roman Rukomeda.

We are entering a new phase in which China's powerful manufacturing industry is being threatened by lower wages in neighbouring countries and will have to gain its vital competitive edge from culture-based creativity and innovation, argues Philippe Kern. Much like in Europe.

Finland is considering increasing its military cooperation in the north, something it had been reluctant to do in the past because it did not want to damage its economic relationship with Moscow, writes Stratfor.

The mass protests since the falsified Duma election last December have changed Russia, writes Green MEP Werner Schultz in an op-ed he contributed to EURACTIV Germany. This is a slightly shortened version.

The fact that Russia is once again headed by Vladimir Putin has ramped up pressure on Ukraine. Therefore Kyiv will continue to act in an inconsistent and unpredictable manner, argues Volodymyr Zastava.