Section: European Voice (EU)
Gazprom floats compromise with Commission
Russia’s gas giant Gazprom said Thursday it wants to “amicably” settle an antitrust case brought by the European Commission that could cost it billions. The case was filed in April, with the Commission accusing Gazprom of abusing its market power to bully and overcharge central European governments and companies, infringing EU competition...
For them, there is no Schengen
MENTON, France, and VENTIMIGLIA, Italy — It is morning in Europe. The sunlight crests the Italian hills, tarpaulins and umbrellas casting shadows onto gray rocks lapped by the Mediterranean Sea. As the water starts to shimmer like tin foil in the morning’s glow, the camp starts to wake up. Coughs and sneezes resonate from under blankets and...
Ukraine can’t survive on its own
Something extraordinary is happening in Ukraine. I just returned from a three-day trip there in my capacity as vice chair of the National Democratic Institute — an organization created by Congress to help developing countries build stronger democratic institutions — and I was truly inspired by the spirit I witnessed in a people who have been...
We’re all Putin’s ‘useful idiots’
LONDON — Watching Russian TV recently is a disturbing business. As Stephen Ennis at BBC Monitoring has painstakingly recorded, Russian media has developed a habit of delivering death threats to opposition members, using anti-Semitic insinuations against its opponents, screaming about the threat of the “homosexual sodomite tsunami,” and...
Ministers try to crack migration stalemate, again
European countries remain deadlocked over how to relocate 40,000 refugees across the continent, and may miss yet another deadline for agreeing a deal. As justice and home affairs ministers gather Monday for a meeting aimed at persuading countries to commit to firm figures on accepting asylum-seekers, several key EU member states are refusing to...
Dear President Putin
“Russia is going to review whether or not it was legal for the Soviet Union to recognize the Baltic states as independent nearly 25 years ago, according to a report by Interfax. … The source stated that the investigation was launched following requests from two parliamentary deputies.”Business Insider, June 30, 2015 To: Vladimir Putin, President,...
Lobbyists fuel Europe’s sanctions busting boom
It’s not every day a Brussels law firm gets a phone call from a former prime minister of Ukraine. So when Mykola Azarov’s office rang them up one day in May 2014, the partners of Alber & Geiger took notice. Azarov, who held office from 2010 to 2014, had a major legal headache: He had found himself on a European Union blacklist...
Terrorists and oligarchs fight back
The EU’s main weapon for punishing pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarchs has come under fire from a group of businessmen who have filed several new court challenges to a blacklist that has frozen their assets and interests in Europe. The multiple legal appeals argue that EU leaders imposed the sanctions based on a back-of-the-envelope list...
Obama offers some praise of Putin
U.S. President Barack Obama had some kind words for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. Really. As the U.S. and Russia remained locked in a tense stand-off over Putin’s grab for Ukraine, Obama said he was pleasantly surprised by the foreign leader’s assistance in clinching a historic deal with Iran over its nuclear program....
Iran and world powers reach nuclear deal
Iran and six world powers reached a landmark nuclear agreement Tuesday after more than a decade of negotiations, striking a compromise over U.N. inspections of Iranian military sites in return for the eventual lifting of sanctions. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, smiling broadly...
