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 Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) is a key priority of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). It aims at reinforcing cooperation between member states and partner countries along the external border of the European Union.
15 CBC programmes (9 land borders, 3 sea crossings and 3 sea basin programmes) have been established along the Eastern and Southern external borders of the European Union with a total funding of 1,118,434 million EUR for the 7-year period 2007-2013.
In a debate (September, 23, 2010) with the Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Stefan Füle, many MEPs pointed out that the EU must make better use of the CBC as well as take into consideration the methods that can improve the effectiveness of this programme.
The fact is, the implementation of the CBC projects was being complicated by political and technical problems. Thus, for political reasons, Morocco refuses to take part in the programmes for which Ceuta and Melilla are eligible; Azerbaijan refuses to become involved in joint projects with Armenia and Russia does not want to participate in the Baltic Region Programme.
There were submitted almost six times more applications for the launched calls for proposals than the Commission can finance. 598 proposals were submitted under the MEDA Programme that provides financial and technical assistance to the countries in the southern Mediterranean: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, the Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
At the end of 2010, the Commission will present an assessment report on the implementation of the CBC programmes. One year later, it will also propose new legislative regulation for the ENPI.
