Latest Articles about Europe
Purge of Serb Negotiating Team To Precipitate Onerous Energy Agreements with Russia
Serbia’s coalition government has removed Economics Minister Mladan Dinkic from his concurrent assignment as head of the negotiating team on energy agreements with Russia. The impending oil and gas deals involve essentially a Russian takeover of Serbia’s energy sector. Dinkic and his colleagues who were... MORE
SBU Stops Separatism in Its Tracks
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has patted itself on the back for stopping separatism in three different regions: Donetsk, Crimea, and Transcarpathia (www.ssu.gov.ua, December 9). All three cases involved pro-Russian organizations financed from Russian sources. The SBU’s statements do not provide details about the... MORE
Hungary Doubling Efforts for Nabucco Ahead of Budapest Summit
The Hungarian government and the private MOL energy company are doubling their efforts to help launch the Nabucco gas project on schedule. Given Hungary’s 80 percent dependence on Russian gas, even the oft-wavering Socialist Party has joined the consensus view that supply diversification through Nabucco... MORE
Ukraine Continues To Knock on the West’s Doors but Looks Back to Russia
Kyiv has suffered several setbacks in its Euro-Atlantic integration plans. The European Union came up with a collective plan for Ukraine and several other post-Soviet states that does not give Ukraine the prospect of EU membership. NATO refrained from offering a Membership Action Plan (MAP),... MORE
Ukrainian and Georgian ANPs Are Also Testing NATO
The NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels on December 3 announced that Albania and Croatia were now completing their Membership Action Plans (MAPs) and would be welcomed at the NATO Summit in April 2009 as new members of the alliance. The ministerial communiqué takes note of... MORE
From MAPs to ANPs: the Background to NATO’s Compromise Decision
NATO’s ministerial meeting on December 3 decided to offer Annual National Plans (ANPs), instead of Membership Action Plans (MAPs), to Georgia and Ukraine. The old NATO-Ukraine Commission and the new NATO-Georgia Commission are to draw up and administer the ANPs (see EDM, December 5). A... MORE
Ukraine Beefs Up Its Military Defenses with an Eye on Russia
Since the Russian invasion of Georgia in August, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has stressed the need to review defense priorities, with reference to the budgetary allocations to the military (The Times, August 23). The president warned that he would refuse to sign the state budget... MORE
U.S. Missiles Target Suspect in Transatlantic Airliner Plot
Late in the evening of November 21, a U.S. operated Predator drone struck a house in North Waziristan owned by local warlord Khaliq Noor. Among those allegedly killed were British-Pakistani militant Rashid Rauf and senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Zubair al-Masri (Dawn [Karachi], November 22; BBC,... MORE
Ukraine Recognizes Gas Debt, May Face Higher Price
Gazprom has threatened to more than double the gas price in 2009 if Ukraine fails to pay its debt for previous purchases by January 1. Ukraine’s energy inefficient industry might not survive such an increase amid the global economic crisis. Moreover, RosUkrEnergo may be retained... MORE
The Meeting That Never Took Place
On December 1 a session of the Supreme Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus was scheduled to take place in Moscow. According to propaganda from the two sides, it was to be a significant occasion that, in contrast to the recent past,... MORE