Ukraine not ready to sign association agreement with EU (2 Mb)
ISSUE # 24
07/15/2013
Ukraine is not ready at the moment to sign the association agreement with the EU,
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said on 8 July 2013.
On 10 July, Linkevicius also stated that Lithuania questioned Ukraine's ability to
meet the criteria put forward by the EU for signing the association agreement at the
Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius. READ MORE
- Gorshenin Weekly |
Published on EGF: 02.08.2013
| External Relations
-
EGF Turkey File (506 Kb)
Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics during 1-15 July 2013
By John VanPool, EGF Turkey and Black Sea Regional Analyst
Key Points:
- Turkey’s Parliament recesses for the summer break, having pushed through several pieces of legislation at the last hour. The most divisive of these aimed at stripping the power of the influential architects’ union, which supported the Taksim Square protests.
- Progress is slow on the new constitution. The CHP accuses Prime Minister Erdogan of only wanting to blame the opposition on the glacial nature of the new document in order to make himself president.
- The PKK reshuffles its leadership, but the head of the group’s armed wing warns the Turkish government to take immediate steps to show it is committed to the peace agreement.
- Turkey’s backing of moderate rebel fighters in Syria has not turned the tide in the country as Salafist groups with Gulf backers gain influence in the opposition.
- The growing numbers of Syrian refugees pose a grave threat to Turkey’s own domestic tranquillity.
- Completion nears on a northern oil pipeline between Turkey and the Kurdish Regional Government that will connect with the existing Kirkuk-Ceyhan line, all at the expense of Baghdad.
READ MORE
- EGF Editorial |
Published on EGF: 19.07.2013
| External Relations
-
EGF Turkey File (85 Kb)
Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics during June 16-30th 2013
By John VanPool, EGF Turkey and Black Sea Regional Analyst
Key Points:
- Germany again blocks Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, citing the AKP government’s response to the Taksim Square protests.
- Turkey’s leading official in charge of EU negotiations criticizes German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the matter.
- Prime Minister Tayip Erdogan continues assertions that foreign powers are at play behind the protest movement.
- A lack of evidence to this assertion, and the obvious lack of a “Deep State” that he subdued continues to make Erdogan look like a leader proffering conspiracy theories rather than listening to protesters demands.
- NABUCCO (West) meets its end when Shah Deniz Consortium chooses TAP pipeline project on June 28.
- NABUCCO’s end is a result of over a decade of rising cost and changing geopolitical positions of the stakeholders involved.
READ MORE
- EGF Editorial |
Published on EGF: 09.07.2013
| External Relations
-
EGF Gazprom Monitor (134 Kb)
A Snapshot of Key Developments in the External Relations of the Russian Gas Sector
By Jack Sharples, EGF Associate Researcher on the external dimensions of Russian gas
Key points:
- The Lithuanian Supreme Court postpones its hearing of Gazprom’s complaint against the Lithuanian Court of
Appeal; RWE Supply and Trading CZ wins a gas price dispute with Gazprom in the Vienna Commercial Court;
Gazprom fails to bid for Greece’s gas distribution system operator, DEPA; Gazprom officially announces its
plans to construct an LNG export terminal on Russia’s Baltic coast; Gazprom predicts a year-on-year increase in
gas exports in 2013
- Gazprom pays Ukraine $1bn in an advance for gas transit fees until 1st of January 2015; Gazprom is not
pursuing legal action against Naftogaz Ukraine for failing to meet its ‘take or pay’ commitments; There are no
ongoing talks about the establishment of a consortium to manage Ukraine’s gas transportation system (GTS)
- Gazprom continues to examine the potential for a second line of the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Europe via
Belarus
- Gazprom confirms that the construction of South Stream’s offshore section will begin in the second quarter of
2014, to be launched in 2015; Collapse of the Nabucco pipeline project clears the way for South Stream in
South-East Europe
- Gazprom and GDF Suez agree to explore the possibility of expanding the Nord Stream pipeline
- Gazprom and CNPC aim to sign gas supply contract by the end of 2013; Gazprom and the Japan Far East Gas
Co. Ltd sign a Memorandum of Understanding on the latter’s participation in Gazprom’s Vladivostok LNG
project.
- Gazprom’s Chairman and Chief Executive are re-elected at the company’s Annual General Meeting; CNPC
purchases a 20 percent stake in Novatek’s Yamal LNG project
READ MORE
- EGF Editorial |
Published on EGF: 08.07.2013
| External Relations
-
EGF Turkey File (86 Kb)
Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics during 1-15 June 2013
By John VanPool, EGF Turkey and Black Sea Regional Analyst
Key Points:
- Despite heavy police action to clear Taksim Square, the protests continue.
- Erdogan’s hard line stance towards the demonstrations is opening a rift inside the AKP, with one camp
supportive of President Abdullah Gul’s conciliatory approach towards protesters.
- The prime minister hints at foreign and domestic plots behind the Gezi Park situation, making him look
increasingly out of touch with the reality on the ground in Istanbul.
- Turkey’s play in Syria falters as Sunni extremists come to the fore of the opposition. Meanwhile Bashar alAssad’s forces secure victories against the fractured opposition.
- Exxon and TPAO in talks to secure an exploration block for shale gas in the Black Sea.
- Tensions in Iraqi Kurdistan ebb as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visits Erbil.
READ MORE
- EGF Editorial |
Published on EGF: 21.06.2013
| External Relations
-
Old Powers Re-Emergening in the Wider Black Sea: Security and Regionbuilding Strategies in Europe’s Eastern Neighbourhood (1 Mb)
The Black Sea has lost none of its geopolitical significance over time. Historically, the
Black Sea has played an important economic and political role in a wider-region. The
realignment of geopolitical and security strategies in Eurasia during the last two decades
has led to the “re-discovery” of one of the world’s most significant geostrategic areas.
Securing access to new energy deposits from the Caspian has heightened the strategic
significance of the Wider Black Sea (WBS) in Western external policy thinking.
Unfortunately, since the early 1990s, the region has been bogged down in a belt of
protracted conflicts that could potentially threaten both European stability and energy
supply, while trans-national crime and other asymmetric security threats are thriving.
READ MORE
- EGF Editorial |
Published on EGF: 21.06.2013
| External Relations
-
EGF Turkey File (96 Kb)
Insights into Turkish Domestic and International Politics during May 16-31th 2013
By John VanPool, EGF Turkey and Black Sea Regional Analyst
Key Points:
- Protests in Istanbul’s Taksim Square erupt over a heavy handed police response and government indifference
to the protesters’ demands.
- The protest, while minor in the beginning, has been a spark that has brought hundreds of thousands into the
streets across Turkey’s major cities, with anger directed at the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan.
- International press widely covers the protests, drawing the attention of investors who have until recently
been extolling the virtues of AKP governance. Should the unrest continue, Turkey’s impressive economic
performance could come to a halt.
- Despite civil unrest, the country’s energy future looks bright as NABUCCO West brings on GDF Suez and
Turkmenistan seals an agreement for transit rights across Turkey for natural gas shipments.
READ MORE
- EGF Editorial |
Published on EGF: 11.06.2013
| External Relations
-
Ukraine signs memorandum on closer ties with Russia-led regional bloc (2 Mb)
ISSUE # 18
06/03/2013
On 31 May 2013, Ukraine signed a memorandum on intensifying cooperation with
the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The Ukrainian side was represented by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who signed
the document. READ MORE
- Gorshenin Weekly |
Published on EGF: 08.06.2013
| External Relations
-
EU expects Ukraine to honour undertaken commitments (2 Mb)
ISSUE # 17
05/27/2013
The European Parliament (EP) supports Ukraine's intention to sign the association
agreement with the EU this autumn, but expects Kiev to honour the commitments
it has undertaken to this end, the chair of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Elmar Brok, said on 23 May 2013. READ MORE
- Gorshenin Weekly |
Published on EGF: 07.06.2013
| External Relations
-