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The view from Latvia: Is the EU failing us?
Latvia, like the rest of Europe, is experiencing the still-ongoing consequences of the COVID-19 measures, all of which directly affect the economic state of...
Analysis
Legal case over melee during Erdogan’s 2017 DC visit moving ahead
Legal proceedings against Turkish security officers continue to move forward in Washington DC, based on actions they were seen taking against protestors in video...
Analysis
The need for Indo-EU cooperation to expand security in a new multilateral, geo-political situation
India is one of the world’s largest economies, in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity. The country is the fastest-growing large economy,...
Analysis
Corporate reputation warfare presents risk to business’ bottom line
It’s a well-known fact that healthy competition plays a significant role in helping to ensure consumers and clients alike receive better services, experiences and...
Analysis
Four candidates vie to lead the OECD
It has been 60 years since the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was created as an international economic group of 37 countries...
Analysis
The aftermath of a rare visit to Moscow that went badly wrong
People remember moments. Over the years, Josep Borrell, the EU's foreign policy chief, has stressed the importance of talking to Russia. And so, against...
Analysis
Is Turkey Biden’s “ally from hell”?
Ten years ago, The Atlantic ran as its cover story a piece titled “The Ally From Hell”. The article followed the raid that killed al-Qaeda...
Analysis
Kosovo elections chart a path for reform and regional stability
Kosovo’s February 14 election, the sixth for the country in 14 years, landed the opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party in first place with 48 percent...
Analysis
President Biden is advancing the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons around the world
In line with American moral and ethical principles, President Joe Biden signed a Presidential Memorandum to “promote and protect the human rights of lesbian,...
Analysis
Kosovo and Israel establish diplomatic relations
Kosovo and Israel signed an agreement on February 1 to establish diplomatic relations in a deal brokered in the closing months of the presidency...
Analysis
A new dawn for Libya brings hope for regional stability
While it may seem as though only one subject has dominated the news for the past year, and our lives came to a very...
Analysis
Varhelyi proves that Commissioners rule
In December, we revealed a case of disloyalty by Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, a mid-level bureaucrat at the European Commission who was, until the last...
Analysis
Ukraine has lost its way
Ukraine has lost its way. Its chosen road towards transforming itself from a corrupt, post-Soviet thinking culture into a rules-based society has stalled.
Actually, it...
Analysis
Blinken takes the baton at State
Antony Blinken’s confirmation on January 26 as the 71st Secretary of State by the full Senate was almost a non-event resulting in a 78-22...
Analysis
The UAE’s sustainability
The UAE, like other petroleum-producing economies, has been severely hit by the twin shock of low oil prices and pandemic containment measures, which have...
Albania
Montenegro’s parliament passes crucial religion law, but who’s really in charge?
The Montenegrin parliament, in a repeat vote, passed on January 20 a crucial Law on Religious Freedoms which President Milo Djukanovic refused to sign...
Albania
Out in the cold: SE Europe in dire need of vaccine supplies
With the COVID-19 pandemic steadily worsening across much of Europe, the citizens of the continent’s Southeast European region have been left out of much...
Africa
Uncertainty, outrage abound as African Union prepares for leadership election
The African Union Commission elections that are slated for February 7 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is facing an unprecedented level of public...
Africa
Potential head of presidential council looks fit to pull Libya out of quagmire
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL)-brokered Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) has so far failed to bring the light at the end...
Albania
Albania’s Rama cautiously balancing between Erdogan and Mitsotakis
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on January 7, and made a hastily arranged “private” stop,...
Analysis
The last deception, worse than the first*
To start with, Donald Trump lost the election. Whether the Democrats cheated or not is irrelevant as Trump was in power and could have...
Analysis
Washington delivers a holiday sanctions snowball to Ankara and Moscow
Although already well understood by Moscow’s elite, tens of millions of Turkish citizens learned on December 14 what the American acronym CAATSA means --...
Analysis
Secretary Pompeo lets Turkey know what Washington really thinks
In an exchange that warmed the hearts of all Greeks and Greek Cypriots everywhere and was reported as front-page news, US Secretary of State...
Albania
The Bulgarian hammer comes down
Firmly refusing to approve the negotiating framework for the “Intergovernmental Conference” required to launch North Macedonia’s EU accession process, Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva...
Analysis
Bulgaria and North Macedonia continue tussle over language
While EU Enlargement was supposed to be the primary focus in the region for the final months of 2020, a long-simmering controversy with Bulgaria...
Albania
The Hague to assist Albania and Greece resolve maritime border
In an ironic twist of historical events, Albania and Greece jointly announced October 20 that they were requesting assistance from the International Court of...
Albania
Varhelyi refocuses on enlargement for Southeast Europe
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi visited North Macedonia and Albania on October 6-7, meeting leaders in both countries as well as addressing parliaments....
Afghanistan
Final Trump UN General Assembly address hits multilateralism
In the final address to the UN General Assembly of his current term in office, US President Donald J Trump sent a short video...
Analysis
Trump Administration’s Kosovo announcement fails to impress
The Trump Administration’s second attempt to gather Kosovar and Serbian leaders at the White House succeeded on September 4 just as Washington and most...
Albania
North Macedonia’s coalition government forms up, as directed
Once again, to the delight of North Macedonia’s Western supporters, Skopje has a new coalition government that looks very much like last year’s pre-election...
Albania
North Macedonia’s elections unfold, marginally, as directed
To the delight of North Macedonia’s western supporters, the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) landed a razor-thin electoral majority on July 15 in...
Analysis
Croatia and Bulgaria eyeing Eurozone entry
Seemingly ready to ignore the lessons of the last decade’s Eurozone crisis which ravaged many of their neighbours, aspiring Eurozone members Croatia and Bulgaria...
Analysis
Kosovo: EU visa liberalisation issue resurfaces
Increased travel access to the EU for Kosovar citizens remains an interesting sidebar to the now-postponed Washington meeting between recently re-elected Serbian President Aleksandar...
Albania
Trump Administration’s controversial Kosovo gambit accelerates
While not unexpected, the Trump Administration has moved faster than many observers anticipated to restart its ongoing diplomatic initiative to resolve a significant piece...
Analysis
North Macedonia’s (unaffordable) NATO dream takes shape
North Macedonia’s flag is flying over NATO Headquarters today in Brussels as the alliance’s 30th member after the final accession formalities were completed on...
Analysis
Europe's masked corona ball
Response from the Cabinet of Commissioner Lenarčič:
At the end of January, as the outbreak intensified in Wuhan coronavirus epicentre, President von der Leyen triggered...
Analysis
The ouster of Kosovo government exposes deep rifts among Albanian politicians
The parliamentary vote of no confidence on March 25 which caused the fall of the government of Kosovo after less than two months in...
Albania
In desperate times, EU approves new Balkan Enlargement steps
Moving on a trajectory that senior EU leaders publicly outlined at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February, the EU’s General Affairs Council (GAC) agreed...
Analysis
US Democrats overseas vote again for Bernie Sanders
Democrats Abroad, the official international arm of the US’ Democratic Party, announced on March 23 the verified results of the Global Presidential Primary, which...
Analysis
Kosovo action moves to Washington
With global attention increasingly focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, US diplomats amazingly found time in early March to continue pressing Kosovo and Serbia to...
Albania
Amidst crises, Greece finds time for renewed Balkan diplomacy
Despite the multiple crises Greece is currently facing – a continuing refugee deluge and massive public reaction on some islands, the spreading coronavirus threat,...
Analysis
China, strange attractor and victim
When neither science nor religion can give replies, the matter becomes philosophical. When the economy cannot give solutions, the matter becomes political.
The China...
Analysis
The EU needs an Afghanistan policy
For more than 40 years, Afghanistan has been a symbol of a state traumatised and destroyed by war. Since the Soviet Union's invasion in...
Analysis
Revealing the whistle-blowers
The Novartis case had shaken the Greek political system precisely 2 years ago. At that time, 10 political executives were named, in the framework...
Analysis
Munich Bacchanalian surprises
At the Munich Security Conference 2020, two reality-altering messages were sent back to Southeastern Europe, which incidentally was not the core focus of this...
Analysis
A rising star of the Italian left: Interview with Italy’s Elly Schlein
January’s elections in the wealthy Northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna saw former MEP Elly Schlein secure 22.098 votes, making her the top vote-getter in...
Analysis
MEPs won't approve budget cuts
STRASBOURG, France – During a debate of the EU’s key Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027, MEPs underlined that Parliament will only give its...
Analysis
North Macedonia takes a small step forward and one backwards this week
Since being installed in early January in preparation for the country’s April 6 elections, Caretaker Government Labour Minister Rashela Mizrahi, from the ultranationalist VMRO-DPMNE...
Analysis
Greek government offer details about closed facilities for migrants
The Greek government has opted to speed up the process for establishing closed facilities on the country’s islands that are still dealing with the...
Analysis
All roads lead to Rome, which in this case is the containment of China
After the acquittal of President Donald Trump by the Senate in the impeachment trial, as was expected, the road for his re-election in November...
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