The Kremlin is demonstrating its growing anger with the European Union for encroaching onto the territory of the former Soviet Union, which Moscow considers its exclusive sphere of influence. An important summit between the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova... MORE

Lithuania’s National Energy Independence Strategy, passed by the country’s parliament in June 2012, aims to ensure Lithuania’s energy independence before 2020 by strengthening the country’s energy security and, by extension, its economic competitiveness (https://www.enmin.lt/lt/activity/veiklos_kryptys/strateginis_planavimas_ir_ES/Energy_independence_strategy0919.pdf). Lithuania’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which it... MORE

Located at the geographic center of Europe, Lithuania is ideally situated to become a regional transportation hub. Two strategic transportation lines cross Lithuania: the North-South highway and railway line connecting Scandinavia with Central Europe, and the East-West Transport Corridor between enormous eastern markets and the... MORE

In late December, the Swedish defense chief, General Sverker Göranson, stoked controversy by noting that Sweden would only be able to defend itself for a week without outside help (Svenska Dagbladet, December 30, 2012). Generally taking its cues from Sweden, a few weeks later, a... MORE

On November 6, two unknown perpetrators threw two bottles with a flammable substance into the Lithuanian embassy compound in Minsk. The Investigating Committee of Belarus launched a criminal investigation; the Belarusian ambassador to Vilnius was handed a note of protest; and the Lithuanian ambassador to... MORE

Lithuania is forging ahead on natural gas sector reform and liquefied natural gas (LNG) access, outpacing other states in the region. In 2011, Lithuania became the first EU member country to adopt the Third Package of EU energy market legislation, choosing its most far-reaching version.... MORE

Lithuania is reviewing possible options for nuclear fuel supplies to the Baltic regional nuclear power plant, projected at Visaginas in Lithuania. Japan’s Hitachi Corporation and its subsidiary, Hitachi-General Electric of the United States, are building that plant and will supply the nuclear fuel. According to... MORE

On March 30, Lithuania and Japan’s Hitachi Corporation initialed the concession agreement to build a Baltic regional nuclear power plant at Visaginas in Lithuania. The Lithuanian government had selected Hitachi and its subsidiary, Hitachi-General Electric of the US, as the strategic investor for this project,... MORE

In 2011, Lithuania became the first European Union member country to enact EU energy market reform on national territory (see EDM, July 7, 2011). Lithuania opted for the most far-reaching version of this anti-monopoly legislation (“unbundling,” under the EU’s Third Energy Package). It requires separation... MORE

As arithmetically predetermined, the nays handily prevailed over the ayes in Latvia’s constitutional referendum on instituting Russian as a parallel state language in Latvia. The Russian party, Harmony Center, triggered this referendum in the knowledge that it could only lose, aiming however to demonstrate its... MORE