Section: European Voice (EU)
EU puts Ukraine trade deal on legal ice
The European Union yesterday (12 September) said that it would delay the application of a trade agreement with Ukraine until the end of 2015, in a move intended to bolster the chances of Russia agreeing to a comprehensive peace deal to end the war in eastern Ukraine. The decision was announced by the European Commission hours after a meeting...
EU targets three of Russia’s major oil companies in latest round of sanctions
Russia’s three major oil companies will no longer have the ability to finance themselves with money from the European Union following the latest round of sanctions announced today (12 September). EU companies can no longer provide Rosneft, Transneft or Gazprom Neft with anything other than short-term loans, defined as being shorter than 30...
Member states’ reactions to Juncker’s allocation of portfolios
Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, Commission president Tageblatt, a newspaper in Luxembourg, says that the new European Commission “should be given a chance”, though they question the co-ordinator roles: “Should there be more co-ordinators to co-ordinate them?” The ambitious plans of Juncker to invest in economy and bring economic growth are seen...
EU unveils new Russia sanctions
The European Union has announced that further sanctions on Russia will come into force on Friday (12 September). EU companies will be banned from providing loans to five state-owned Russian banks and six Russian oil and defence companies. The EU will also block other forms of financing for these firms, including the trading of newly-issued bonds...
MEPs to ratify Ukraine agreement
The European Parliament will be asked to ratify the European Union’s association agreement with Ukraine during next week’s plenary session in Strasbourg (15-18 September). The vote, which is expected to be affirmative, has been tentatively scheduled for Tuesday (16 September). The foreign-affairs committee approved the agreement on...
EU and Canada move closer to strategic partnership agreement
Canada and the European Union this week initialled a new political agreement intended to reinforce their collaboration on the international stage, as well as their economic co-operation. It remains unclear, however, when the strategic partnership agreement (SPA) will be signed, just as it remains uncertain when the two sides will sign a trade...
Russia pulls aviation into sanctions war
Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, this week threatened to close Siberian airspace to European planes, warning Europe that “many” European airlines could be forced into bankruptcy if Russia carried out its threat. Medvedev’s announcement, published on Monday (8 September), came hours before the European Union’s member...
The return of a Soviet habit
The safest way to attack someone’s credibility is to nibble at it. This is what Russia is doing to NATO with its abduction of an Estonian security official on 5 September. The kidnapping exemplifies the way the Kremlin works. Gangsterdom, intelligence, propaganda, a sense of history and diplomacy all overlap. The timing is excellent and so...
EU holds off on Russia sanctions
The European Union yesterday evening agreed on a set of additional economic sanctions that it will impose on Russia depending on Russia’s response to a ceasefire agreed on Friday between Ukraine’s government and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The agreement amounts to an incremental extension of the EU’s sanctions...
Russia threatens to close airspace
Russia’s prime minister has warned that Russia may refuse Western airlines the right to fly over Siberia in response to sanctions that the European Union and the United States are poised to impose. In an interview published this morning in the Russian paper Vedomosti, Dmitry Medvedev said that an end to overflight rights could drive “many”...
