Inside News on Odessa and Ukraine
I was pondering a blog entry on how the EU will deal with the next Ukrainian political term given the less than ideal way it was run and eventually concluded. The answer it seems has been given before I thought too deeply about strategies, causal effects, lines of communications both overt and subtle and to […]
I am not really in the mood for writing much today - and it’s Sunday! But as it is Sunday, here is the entire EU-Ukraine-Association-Agreement-ENG, all 906 pages of it, for your weekend reading. Lots of interesting content in that and obviously a framework for those nations yet to enter into such negotiations to be […]
According to MEP Pawel Kowal, head of the European Parliament’s Observer Mission for the Ukrainian elections when speaking at the European Parliament Committee for Foreign Affairs a few days ago, the Ukrainian elections were the best of those held by post-Soviet nations. For a man who should be used to being very careful with his […]
No, no, no. Whilst we are still waiting for an eventual final election count for all constituency seats and then a decision by the opposition whether to accept the elections results or not some 8 days after polling day, that is not what I am referring to - though it would make a cynical tweet […]
If I needed proof that people (bless you all) actually read what I write occasionally , aside from the website statistics and comments made, questions sent by readers is indeed such proof. Relating to this post written a few days ago, I have been sent several questions, and most aimed at these two paragraphs: “The […]
Of all the election reports and statements made by the numerous monitoring groups, as I have written before, the statements and reports of ODIHR/OSCE are those that count, historically at least, in the forming of the EU mindset towards recognition - or not. Here is the “morning after” statement. Nothing surprising in there to be […]
It is no secret to those who read this blog that I have on several occasions during this parliamentary election period, been asked to speak with LTOs (long term observers) from several international monitoring organisations with people in Odessa. Whilst large sections of recent blog posts cover much of what has been said, lack of […]
The Venice Commission, when looking at the proposed new law on the Public Prosecutors Office of Ukraine, has in summary, made it clear that whilst the new law goes a long way to improving matters and generally brings Ukraine into EU norms (with the need for some clarifications in the text - although not that […]
The new head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, (Ambassador for want of a better analogy), Jan Tombinski, seems to be doing his very best to pour oil on the somewhat choppy waters between Ukraine and the EU in efforts to smooth matters between the two sides to some degree. He recently gave a press […]
Today is something of a rushed post. Yesterday was my birthday, a day when I spent much time being kissed by many people I would prefer not to be kissed by, and a day when I was not kissed by many people I would happily be kissed by. Hmmm! Anyway, as you can imagine, there […]