... programme were published under the motto “
Recovery, power, belonging
” France, as expected, is reiterating its call for strengthening European sovereignty. The rhetoric of the document and its author is genuine textbook-realism. But now for the entire European Union.
Objectives of the French Presidency
, are not articulated directly but are quite visible—making the EU more manageable and accountable to its members, with new general rules to strengthen mobilisation potential, and improve the EU’s ...
... escaping the shocks and scandalous of the Trump era. The United States applied blocking sanctions against a number of Chinese officials, although it did not go for stricter restrictions on financial institutions.
Sanctions against China were imposed by the European Union and other US allies. Brussels has done so using its
new legal mechanism on human rights
. Beijing delivered an immediate and
harsh response
. Last year China did a great job in the development of its
counter-sanctions mechanism
. New ...
...
of the EU, and the United States issued a
general license
toward previously blocked Belarusian enterprises.
Clouds reappeared on the horizon in 2020, and after the incident with the Ryanair flight, the pressure on Minsk increased significantly. The European Union has expanded its lists of blocked persons. By June 2021,
these were 166 individuals and 15 legal entities
, including such large companies as MAZ and BELAZ.
Sectoral sanctions
have been introduced. Among them are bans on the supply of ...
... focused on the prospects of the second-track diplomacy in the EU – Russia relations. Sabine Fischer, Senior Research Fellow at SWP, and Larisa Deriglasova, Professor at the Tomsk State University, spoke on the matter. Alexander Gusarov, Head of the European Union Division at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Russia, acted as a discussant.
The following session was aimed at identifying potential spheres of constructive cooperation of Moscow and Brussels with energy sector and the Arctic acting ...
Presentation of The Routledge Handbook of EU-Russia Relations, December 6, 2021 at 14:30
Given the current state of the EU-Russia relations, few channels of communication remain as effective and fruit bearing as earlier. This leaves both Russia and Europe in need of boosting their efforts to work out a new formula or mode of relations.
In these circumstances, second-track diplomacy remains the most viable and inherently positive channel of developing and exchanging ideas, clarifying positions...
The Lithuanian gamble has low chances of succeeding
Why does Lithuania provoke China on the Taiwan question? Is it indeed so important for politicians in Vilnius to have a "Taiwan Representative Office" in their city instead of a "Taipei Economic and Cultural Office" or something similar? Everybody understands how sensitive this issue is for Beijing and it was crystal clear from the very beginning that China could not take the Lithuanian challenge lightly. The reaction from...
... consistent with your objectives, you must anticipate your opponent’s moves and plan accordingly.
Morocco moved pieces on May 17 and 18, 2021, when it let in 8,000 immigrants in the city of Ceuta, a Spanish territory in Africa and external border of the European Union. It did so without warning, neglecting its functions as border guardian and allowing the entry of a mass of migrants amounting to 9.5% of Ceuta’s population.
This episode is of unprecedented character: it occurred in the context of a ...
... Underpinning the Ongoing Nuclear Renaissance
European leadership
. The different rounds of negotiations and discussions during COP26 were marked by a lack of European leadership, which was denounced by prominent political figures. From the perspective of the European Union, this year’s edition of the COP should have been an opportunity to showcase a strong leadership, convincing the world that strengthening the commitments within the Paris Agreement must go hand in hand with a green global recovery. The ...
... treaty signed not by people but by sovereign nation states. As the EU is not a nation state, it is possible to claim that no European society can exist until the EU becomes a nation state or is substituted by it.
The previous paragraphs addressed the “European Union” part of the “European (Union) society”. Now, it is necessary to focus on the issues of “society”. The concept of “Gesellschaft”, which decently grasped the mode of interactions feasible in the second half of the 19
th
and ...
... Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Mitja Slavinec, State Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Slovenia; Branko Rakovec, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Slovenia to the Russian Federation; and Markus Ederer, Ambassador of the European Union to the Russian Federation
On November 11, 2021, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), in partnership with the Embassy of the Slovenian Republic and the EU Delegation to Russia, held the Eleventh Meeting in the “EU-Russia” ...
