21 March 2012 - The Arab NGO Network for Development has urged MEPs to help ensure that the EU's proposed Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia are not pursued before new constitutions are adopted and development models established that prioritise peoples' social and economic rights. See letter to MEPs. See also letter from 42 Arab CSOs to the EU
The European Union must engage with the new leaderships emerging from the transitions in the Arab world and should not be afraid of the outcome of democratic elections, the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle said in a speech in Munich today.
By Daniel Korski - 26 Jan 12 - It is too early to write off Egypt's revolution. Unlike in the past, politics is now a live issue across the country, and that popular force is a difficult one to control or stop, and even the steps that have been taken now seemed impossible just over a year ago.
Karel de Gucht speech, 23 January 2012
Belgrade resident Jelena Stankovic, 33, works in an international creative marketing agency, surviving cut after cut in both staffing and salary.
In response to the Arab Spring the European Commission has proposed to create a new European Neighbourhood Instrument, based on the European Union’s reviewed approach to cooperation with its neighbours in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
No diplomatic meeting has personified the rise of the BRICS as much as the recent EU-Summit. Fresh from rigging an election, Russia’s president turned up in Brussels for the regular powwow - not to be lectured by EU leaders on the importance of free and fair elections, but to be begged for money.
The EU decided on Friday (December 30th) to renew trade preferences for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo until 2015. The preferences, which expired at the end of December 2010, will allow duty-free access of nearly all products from the region to the bloc. All exporters will be able to claim compensation for the duties they paid in 2011.
20-12-2011 - The European Union has recently disbursed €26.22 million to the Georgian Treasury in support of measures in two key sectors, internally displaced people and education, according to a press release from the EU Delegation in Tbilisi.
The new "Vademecum on Financing in the Frame of the Eastern Partenrship" provides some information on the way in which the € 600 million earmarked for the EaP will be used over the period of 2010-2013.
In particular, the document explains who will be eligible to receive and implement EU-funded projects, what types of activities will be financed and in what timeframe. It also provides answers to 23 specific questions regarding the rules governing the financing of the Partnership.
For more information, please consult the Vademecum.
