European Union

Time for Transatlantic Leadership

By Stuart Eizenstat and Caio Koch-Weser

Saturday the leaders of the G20 will convene for a pivotal meeting on the future of global economic policy and financial market reform. Their first gathering in 2008 set a strong and encouraging tone of greater international cooperation. Less than two years on, this important spirit is getting lost.

Russia-Belarus “Gas War” is Over

By Reuters

From Reuters:  Russia resumed gas supplies to Belarus on Thursday and paid gas transit debts to Minsk in a move to ease fears of supply cuts to the European Union, which has called the dispute an attack on the entire bloc. Belarus said it had yet to receive the payments for transit but was ready […]

British Security Policy – the US or the EU?: Choose Your Partners

By Anand Menon, Chatham House

Turkey Bets on East Over West

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Geopolitical tectonic plates began grinding menacingly five years ago when Turkey embarked on negotiations for membership in the European Union but it didn’t take long for Ankara to conclude that EU was play acting. There was little appetite for adding 70 million Turkish Muslims (80 million by the end of a projected 10-year negotiation) to […]

Belarus orders cutoff of Russian gas to Europe

By Deutsche Welle

From Deutsche Welle:  Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that Russia and Belarus were facing a "gas war," similar to Russia’s 2009 conflict with Ukraine. He ordered that the flow of Russian gas to Europe via Belarus be stopped, saying Gazprom owes transit fees of $260 million (211 million euros) for the first half […]

Turkey opposition gains ground amid eastward drift

By the AP

Budget Crisis Highlights Need for Improving NATO-EU Partnership

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

From Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO: [A] NATO-EU strategic partnership would be a major cost-saver, especially in the area of military capabilities. We have already seen with the Strategic Airlift Capability Initiative that cooperation between NATO and the European Union is possible. Ten NATO nations, nine of which are also EU nations, as well as two EU […]

SecGen Rasmussen: “NATO membership does not come for free”

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

From Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO: Economic prosperity also requires wise security choices. … By sharing the burden within NATO, individual Allies can achieve a far greater level of security than they could achieve through any national approach — and at far lower cost.

EU approves new sanctions on Iran

By the AP

From the AP:  The European Union on Thursday adopted new sanctions against Iran, the latest in a series of measures taken by the international community in an effort to halt the country’s nuclear program. The restrictions come on top of a fourth round of sanctions imposed last week by the U.N. Security Council to curtail […]