Better late than never? Commission runs now to fight energy dependency on Russia with the sustainable energy security package

Maros Sefcovic Canete European Commission Energy

It was last Tuesday when the Commission launched a set of measures to increase energy security in the European Union. The executive arm of the EU now aims mainly at reducing dependency from countries outside the bloc (i.e. Russia), endorsing the energy union and decreasing the use of fossil fuels by replacing them with renewables. Being one […]

Who is to lose from the 6-month extension of the EU economic sanctions against Russia?

The European Foreign Ministers gathered in Luxembourg two days ago and decided to continue imposing economic sanctions to Russia for another six months. This shows the strong intention of Europe to weaken Russia’s power in Ukraine and thus put a stop on Russia’s imperialistic plans. However, Russia claims these sanctions as “illegal and unfounded” and will fight […]

The G7 adopted dangerous views about Ukraine and Greece

Last weekend the leaders of the G7 countries in reality acknowledged their impotency or probably unwillingness to effectively confront the expansion of the destructive and unlawful activities of the “too big to fail” banks and the shadow banking sector. After that, they decided that Ukraine and Greece have to go on bleeding in order not […]

The hostilities in south and eastern Ukraine resume; where could they lead?

The resumption of hostilities in south-eastern Ukraine is blamed by the West to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow reportedly wants to help the pro-Russian separatists who prevail in the Luhansk and Donetsk region to gain control of Mariupol a key port in this area on the Black Sea. However, the heavy fighting that took […]

A few, or rather two, trade and economic alliances may rule our brave new world

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission President together with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a Press conference following the 23rd EU-Japan Summit which took place in Tokyo on 29 May. The focal point of the meeting was supposed to be the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two sides. However the EU dignitary spoke […]

Have Europe’s Ukrainian wounds begun to heal?

The wounds the Ukrainian civil war has inflicted on Europe have now stopped bleeding and if not begun healing at least they claim no more fatalities. The Minsk II agreement is holding well and the Europeans, most of them, have made clear to the Americans that there is no chance of starting a new war […]

Only the Americans are unhappy with the ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine

Despite the fact that the Minsk ceasefire agreement is holding more or less well and the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine has stopped, the Americans seem quite unhappy. They insist on the need to supply the Ukrainians with heavy armaments to continue the war, this time clearly against Putin’s Russia. Let’s follow the facts. On 25 […]

Greece and Ukraine main items on EU28 menu; the course is set

The world community will be watching very closely today’s gathering of the 28 leaders of the European Union in Brussels. The reason is that its agenda includes two crucial issues; the economic fate of Greece and a discussion on the outcome of a conference in Minsk, Belarus for the future of Ukraine. Yesterday afternoon both […]

Europe, US and Russia haggle over Ukraine’s convulsing body; Russians and Americans press on for an all out civil war

Germany and France are alarmed at the prospect that the Americans could turn Ukraine into an unbelievable inferno, by overtly delivering heavy armaments to Kiev. In such an event implications on Europe’s security will be vast. The French President François Hollande and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel rushed to Moscow last Friday and met the […]

“As German Chancellor I want to be able to cope with the merger of the real and digital economy”, Angela Merkel from Switzerland; the Sting reports live from World Economic Forum 2015 in Davos

At the second day of the World Economic Forum 2015 in Davos the world was expecting the German Chancellor, Mrs Angela Merkel, in one of the most awaited sessions, titled “Global responsibilities in a digital age”. Mrs Merkel’s speech was warm and stimulating covering the hot issues of the European political agenda. To a disappointment […]

Can Kiev make face to mounting economic problems and social unrest?

The time of truth for the European Union’s strategy on the Ukrainian question finally came. Brussels is about to let the poor country not only be dismembered, but what will be left of it will be pushed into an economic and political inferno. As it happens, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker essentially ‘ordered’ Kiev to “bring […]

EU-Russia relations: the beginning of a warmer winter?

The year 2014 has seen many changes and overturns in the EU-Russia relations, but although the New Year is just a few hours away, there is still time for the last swing. From both sides. Yesterday a few Russian media outlets reported that the High Representative of the European Union Federica Mogherini stated that Western powers […]

“Who do I call if I want to call Europe?” Finally a name and a number to answer Henry Kissinger’s question

The much awaited succession ceremony at the EU Council took place yesterday in Brussels. Herman Van Rompuy, leaving President of the EU Council, handed over Europe’s top job to Poland’s Donald Tusk. Mr Tusk, who served as Premier Minister of Poland two times, is considered to be one of Europe’s most successful politicians of the past […]

The West definitively cuts Russia off from the developed world

Last weekend’s G20 Summit in Brisbane Australia in a direct way ineradicably mapped the abyss now dividing the West from Russia. American and European leaders including Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and David Cameron threatened Russia with more sanctions, meant to completely cut her off from western markets and besiege her economy, if Moscow doesn’t stop […]

Brussels wins game and match in Ukraine no matter the electoral results

Yesterday’s election in Ukraine, even if after countless countings over the next days it gives President Petro Poroshenko’s Block a clear victory, is not expected to change anything to the better for the war-torn country. Kiev held this election in the loyal regions and the pro-Russian rebels in Luhansk and Donetsk are to hold theirs […]

Russia accepts what the EU has to offer and settles to negotiate with Ukraine

This time the Europeans did it without the Americans in Ukraine. They managed to convince Russia to guarantee unobstructed natural gas supplies for the war-torn country and the EU for ‘at least’ during this winter. They did it last Friday in Milan, northern Italy, during the EU-Asia leaders meeting. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel took […]

EU cracks under the weight of its policy on the Ukraine-Russia nub

The Ukrainian civil war, with the two sides patronised respectively by the West (EU and US) and Russia, has now deeply divided the entire Old Continent. On Friday 26 September Hungary decided to cut off its secondary supplies of Russian natural gas to Ukraine. Last June, after Moscow cut its direct deliveries of gas to […]

EU’s new sanctions on Russia into force “in the next few days”: strength, weakness or strategy?

Last Saturday appeared as the possible beginning of a new phase for the Ukraine-Russia question, after a ceasefire was signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, between the Ukrainian government and rebels on Friday. Although both sides claimed on Saturday that the other had violated the ceasefire, the Associated Press reported that Donetsk was relative calm, the […]

European Council: Choosing new leaders for the EU betrays efforts for a wider arrangement

The special meeting of the European Council held last Saturday 30 August, despite or probably because of the alarming news about the new fall of inflation to the crisis level of 0.3% last month, was almost totally devoted to the Ukrainian crisis. Unfortunately, the new inflation coming close to zero means that the millions of […]

Ukrainian civil war: Is this the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?

The Russian convoy of 280 lorries loaded with humanitarian aid (food, water, electricity generators, etc.) crossed the borders without Kiev’s permission last week and delivered on Friday 22 August its cargo to Luhansk, a key position in the warfare between the government special forces and the pro-Russian separatist rebels who still hold the city. The […]

The West and Russia impose a new order on the world

The US led confrontation of the West with Russia has just generated the first tangible and sizeable losses for Europe. German equity values and EU agricultural exports to Russia registered heavy costs last week, while the New York Stock Exchange recorded only minor harms. Those developments came after the EU activated its last package of […]

Is continuous sanctioning the way to resolve the Ukrainian crisis?

The E.U. together with the U.S. decided to impose harsher economic sanctions against Russia last Wednesday. This action was expected since Russia continued to further scale its violent military intervention in eastern Ukraine despite the warnings that were given by the U.S. and E.U. U.S. sanctions focus on financial and energy sectors The U.S. are taking advantage of what is […]

Russia and the EU ‘trade’ natural gas supplies and commercial concessions in and out of Ukraine

Despite the willingness of the West (EU and US) to gradually cut off Russia from the western and central European economic volume, the gas pipelines are always there, supplying the rest of Europe with Russian combustible materials and reminding everybody that the Old Continent is still dependent on Russian fossil fuels. The ‘Euro-Mediterranean Platform on […]

The Ukrainian crisis to destabilize Europe and the world for a long time

The Kiev government and the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko may be celebrating their military victory in ‘recapturing’ the rebel town of Sloviansk, but they don’t seem to mind much about the future. For one thing the pro-Russian rebels have not been defeated, at least not yet; they withdrew from the northern parts of the Donetsk […]

Europe might not avoid new partitioning on Ukrainian crisis

It seems that a confrontational paranoia is engulfing our world. The British Prime minister is waging an aggressive campaign (which may end up being self-destructive) against the candidacy of Jean-Claude Juncker for the Presidency of the Commission. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel is encountering this British challenge with an all-out offensive having organized a continental […]

Macro-Financial Assistance: Europe’s way to control Ukraine?

The European Commission (EC) paid out €500 million to Ukraine on Tuesday, a financial support to be the first loan tranche of the second Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) programme of the EU. While the crisis in Ukraine is still raging and the need for economic reforms is more crucial than ever, the EU is adding to International […]

Moscow’s Eurasian Union lost significance after the crisis in Ukraine

Last Thursday 29 May, the Presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the last and most important document, the founding Treaty for their Eurasian Union, to have effect as from 1st January 2015. Four more countries Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have also expressed strong interest to adhere to this new politico-economic entity. The EaU […]

What options the new President of Ukraine has?

Petro Poroshenko, the new Ukrainian President elect, is one of the wealthiest men of his country, but he is not an oligarch in the sense that he hasn’t made his fortune by getting government contracts and concessions. He actually is the only exception to the rule, that all business tycoons of this badly governed state, […]

Germany and OSCE support an east-west dialogue in Ukraine without exclusions

The West has lost the ball in Ukraine, while the Kremlin ruler tries to make the most out of it. What happened in Mariupol and Sloviansk cannot be justified. West’s allies in the country, that is the extreme right-wing groups and the mercenaries also working for the local oligarchs, proved uncontrollable and untrustworthy. At the […]

Who threatens the lives and livelihoods of Ukrainians?

People who fail to recognize that the stalemate in Ukraine cannot be resolved unilaterally by military force are not only very dangerous but are political, if not common law, crooks. For example, the appointed by the Maidan ‘regiments’, Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a lieutenant of the corrupt ex-Prime Minister Jylia Tymoshenko, while in Odessa […]

What the G7 wants to do in eastern Ukraine

  It took only hours for the West and Russia to discover, after their 17 April Geneva agreement, that the situation in Ukraine is much more complicated than they wanted to make the rest of the world and the public opinion in their home countries believe. The belief that a few men, representing the Organisation […]

The West and Russia took what they wanted from Ukraine

Yesterday, in Geneva the representatives of the EU, the US and Russia did on Ukraine what the European Sting said they were about to do; partition the poor country. By the way, the Ukrainian ‘Foreign Minister’ Andriy Deshchytsia was around, while the three were negotiating about the future and the actual existence of his country, […]

Russia and the West use the same tactics to dismember Ukraine

It’s amazing how much distanced from reality the EU’s foreign policy must be, under the permanent Council Presidency of Lady Catherine Ashton. There is no other explanation than this, if one takes seriously the agenda of yesterday’s EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg, under the chair of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs […]

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