The Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) is a project of the Milano-based Edison with Depa, the Greek state-controlled gas transmission and trading company. ITGI proposes to carry 10 to 12 billion cubic meters (bcm) of “Caspian” gas per year, including 8 bcm to Italy and the remainder... MORE

A contest for priority access to Azerbaijani gas has developed between three gas transport and trading projects: Nabucco, the Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI), and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP, geographically a continuation of the Turkish pipeline route into Greece, heading for Italy). All three are component projects... MORE

As WikiLeaks exposed details concerning “Eagle Guardian,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was concluding the first such state visit to Poland in eight years. For most of that period relations between Warsaw and Moscow had progressively worsened. But over the last year dramatic improvements have occurred,... MORE

For more than a month the media was full of accounts of the latest revelations from WikiLeaks broadcasting US diplomatic cables to the world. The international speculation about the ramifications of the world reading US classified diplomatic traffic gave birth to a media frenzy and... MORE

Stakeholders in Nabucco and other Southern Corridor pipeline consortiums, as well as Shah Deniz project stakeholders in Azerbaijan, the European Commission, and many observers consider that investment decisions are a must in the first half of 2011.If finalized at this juncture, the investment decisions would... MORE

The European Commission’s President, Jose Manuel Barroso, and EU Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, are starting on January 13 an unprecedented joint visit to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. They are responding to Turkmenistan’s recent positive signals about supplies for the EU’s Nabucco transport project, but also to... MORE

Moldova illustrates the risks of introducing a parliamentary system of government prematurely, ahead of state consolidation, institution building, or even genuine party building. Inverting that sequence can disorganize and destabilize the state itself, then return authoritarians to power. Ukraine, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan have each alternated... MORE

Moldova can finally regain political stability after two years of constitutional crisis, incessant parliamentary and presidential elections, unstable governance, and institutional vacancies. Following the November 28, 2010 parliamentary elections (EDM, November 29), the new parliament convened on December 28 and reconstituted the Alliance for European... MORE

The end of voting in the presidential election on December 19 was followed by a large demonstration in October Square, which eventually moved to Independence Square. There followed a violent attack by riot police that left numerous people hospitalized, seven of the nine presidential candidates... MORE

Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, has launched a reform of public administration. This is the second major reform related to the economy undertaken by his government after the tax reform, which was rubberstamped by parliament in early December. Next will be pension, housing and customs service... MORE