The European Parliament announced that it will put to the vote on Thursday the proposal for financial assistance with respect to the decommissioning of Units 1 to 4 of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant in Bulgaria.

• May 17, 2010

Energy Roundtable Summary Document

The EU-Russia energy roundtable discussion held at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO) on February 26, 2010, brought together a significant number of well known experts and policy makers engaged in the EU-Russia energy relationship in order to assess some of the challenges which presently exist in this sphere. Some of these challenges are summarised below. The objectives of the seminar organisers were to create an environment in which experts and policy makers could openly and candidly discuss the challenges standing before the EU-Russia energy relationship. The roundtable was also attended by a large number of participants from academia, government, energy companies and the diplomatic community.

• May 17, 2010

Europe's current crises are bad enough to make anyone feel down. Our Vienna correspondent Kerry Skyring has been visiting his native Australia and concludes that Europe's bad news is best viewed from a sunny beach.

• May 16, 2010

Moscow and Kiev will draw up by June a long-term contract on Russian deliveries of nuclear fuel to Ukraine, the head of the Russian presidential administration said Friday.

• May 15, 2010

China's "growing military muscle" has "raised the urgency for the US and Japan to resolve its standoff over where to station US troops in Japan," Japan's foreign minister said in The Wall Street Journal on May 14.

• May 15, 2010

The Club reports that the session held under the chairmanship of CEIBC president and CEO Telman Aliyev made a decision to conduct systematic sessions dedicated to ecological risks in the Caspian, consider opportunities and promote use of renewable energy sources in countries of the Caspian-Black Sea and Baltic region.

• May 15, 2010

Utilities in South Korea are turning to cheaper alternatives to their main source of coal, Australia, as prices there hit an 18-month peak and have stayed high, industry sources said on Friday.

• May 15, 2010

Russian diplomacy has been on a roll in recent months, the revival of ties with Ukraine being the most dramatic manifestation. But a string of successes, major and minor, sung and unsung, has been notched up below that high point - in Poland, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Norway and Syria.

• May 15, 2010