Search Results for: Russia

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is offering a comprehensive European Union (EU) free-trade deal to Russia, to secure cheaper and more reliable gas and oil supplies. Commission president José Manuel Barroso said the EU will offer this to Russia once it has joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), maybe this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission’s dangling the carrot of a comprehensive European Union (EU) free trade deal in front of Russia to secure cheaper and more reliable gas and oil supplies would also encourage their mutual trade in nuclear materials and technology.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE UNITED States and the European Union (EU) have agreed to set up joint-border enforcement cooperation to detect counterfeit goods, including clothing, and to create teams of diplomats in third country embassies tasked with sharing data and intelligence on counterfeiting.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Amman

JORDAN is undertaking a root and branch reform of its higher education sector to better match the needs of its economy and regulate the burgeoning private sector.

With no statistics on the number of students enrolled in specific subjects, the country’s ministry of higher education is working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on a study to better coordinate the needs of the market and graduating students.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LARGEST edible oil producer in Russia – Yug Rusi – is being lent Euro 146.5 million by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to help modernise its plant, for instance with new packaging facilities, develop a capital programme and boost raw material supplies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission is dangling the carrot of a comprehensive European Union (EU) free-trade deal in front of Russia, as a way of securing cheaper and more reliable gas and oil supplies. Commission president José Manuel Barroso has said the EU will offer Russia an outright and comprehensive free trade deal once it has joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), something that could happen this year.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) Council of Ministers has approved a list of priority projects that will draw in EU funding and diplomatic support under its 2007-13 trans European network (TENs) energy programme. Agreed with the European Parliament, the schemes are designed to fulfil the EU’s energy policy goals of improving security of supply, especially from outside member states, and underpinning Europe’s internal market in gas and electricity.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LATEST energy summit between the European Union (EU) and Russia has given President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to underline Russian power over the EU regarding natural gas supplies. Politely rebuffing European Commission requests for direct EU access to Russia’s gas pipeline networks, he said after the meeting in Sochi, on the Black Sea coast: "If our European partners expect us to let them into the most sacred part of our economy – energy – then we expect the same steps from them in the most critical and important areas for our development.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

RUSSIA’S national resources ministry has announced it wants to review production sharing agreements with western energy companies over the Sakhalin-1 and -2 oil and gas extraction projects. Exxon Mobil, Shell and Total are working on this eastern Siberian island scheme.…

STORIES BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Parliament communiqué has voiced "regrets" that the recent EU-Russia summit in Sochi, southern Russia, failed to strike a significant deal on energy cooperation. In another sign of strained relations between Brussels and Moscow over energy, the parliament passed a motion stressing the "strategic importance" of EU-Russian cooperation on energy "and the need to enhance EU-Russia energy relations".…