Eurasia

Russia’s South Stream natural gas pipeline is “weakening” rival EU-backed Nabucco, according to the European Parliament president. Jerzy Buzek also went on to say that “all bilateral deals with Russian gas exporters are threatening EU’s interests”.

Relations with Turkey have become a hot topic amid Greek election campaigning with both the governing and opposition parties sharpening their anti-Turkish rhetoric as election day draws near. While supporting Turkey’s EU membership bid during his embattled premiership, New Democracy Party, or NDP, leader and Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has …

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to build a 2,300MW Baltic nuclear power plant in the country’s westernmost Kaliningrad region. Under the document the first nuclear power generating unit will be built in 2010-2016, the second one – in 2012-2018. Russian and foreign investors will be engaged …

On the eve of a European Union report on who started the Russia-Georgia war, EU monitors have stepped up their patrols in Georgia to try to keep tensions from boiling over into violence, an official said Tuesday. The August 2008 war ended with Russian soldiers driving Georgian forces out of …

Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze and EU special representative on South Caucasus Peter Semneby discussed the Tbilisi-Brussels relations. Head of the European Commission Delegation to Georgia Per Eklund, Special Envoy of the Swedish EU Presidency to Georgia Fredrik Löjdquist and Political Advisor of EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus …

Having assumed the rotating presidency of the SEDM (Southeast Europe Defence Ministerial Process) on 15 July 2009, Bulgaria will hold meetings of the political-military steering committee of the southeast Europe multinational peace force and of the co-ordination committee of SEDM. Attending will be members of the SEDM, in parallel with …

The new Ambassador of Finland to Bulgaria, Tarja Laitiainen, presented last week her credentials to the President of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov. The ceremony was followed by a discussion with President Parvanov in the resplendent Presidential Palace. After the discussion, the Finnish National Anthem was played in an outstanding way in …

Bulgaria is to press forward with constructing the Belene nuclear power station should finding issues be resolved. Belene was begun in 1987, but a lack of finance halted the project by 1991.

The ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, might leave the government if the prime minister fails to clearly condemn a controversial Macedonian encyclopaedia. Referring to his party’s leader, DUI Vice President Rafiz Aliti told reporters Monday: “If [Ali] Ahmeti decides, we are ready to leave our posts at once.”

European Commission, EC, Vice-President Jacques Barrot says the EC will suggest that the EU Council include Serbia in the bloc’s visa-free regime should a technical mission’s report prove positive. “Serbian Interior Ministry Ivica Dacic handed me a report on Serbia’s progress on the visa liberalisation roadmap this morning, which Serbia …