The Energy Community Treaty was signed between the European Union and nine countries (so-called contracting parties) from the Balkans (seven states), Moldova, and Ukraine with Armenia, Georgia, Norway and Turkey as observers. The Treaty entered into force in 2006 and has had five years of success: it established an increasing socio-economic stability and security of supply.

• October 25, 2011

ISSUE #36
10/24/2011
On 20 October 2011, Ukraine and the EU announced that they had completed negotiations on setting up a free trade area (FTA). “After intensive talks, we managed to agree all the key parameters of an FTA agreement,” the Ukrainian first deputy prime minister and minister of economic development and trade, Andriy Klyuyev, said. READ MORE

• October 25, 2011

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a resolution by approving the major directions of developing the industrial sector of the Mary region, an official Turkmen source said on Monday.

• October 24, 2011

Managing director of the National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGC) announced Iran's readiness to transit Turkmenistan's natural gas to Europe saying that foreign companies have confessed inefficiency of Nabucco Pipeline.

• October 24, 2011

U.S. and North Korean diplomats began talks Monday on Pyongyang's nuclear program, the second direct encounter between the two sides in less than three months.

• October 24, 2011

ISSUE #35
10/17/2011
On 11 October 2011, a Kiev district court sentenced the leader of the opposition Fatherland party, former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko to seven years in jail. Tymoshenko was declared guilty under Part 3, Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which deals with abuse of power. Additionally, she was stripped of the right to hold public office for three years. READ MORE

• October 24, 2011

ISSUE #34
10/10/2011
On 6 October 2011, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the first reading of a presidential draft law on decriminalizing economic offences. Under the draft law, perpetrators of economic offences will no longer bear criminal responsibility but instead will face administrative sanctions such as fines. READ MORE

• October 23, 2011

Pakistan, Morocco, Togo and Guatemala were elected on Friday to the 15-nation UN Security Council for 2012 and 2013, and Islamabad's envoy said he looked forward to working with fellow council member India. The race for a fifth council seat, representing Eastern Europe, was adjourned until Monday after neither of the two candidates, Azerbaijan and Slovenia, was able to win a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly after nine votes.

• October 22, 2011