Panel 2: Development of the European Patent System
During the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union the Patent Office of the Republic of Latvia is organising an international conference to emphasise the importance of intellectual...
By: EU2015LV
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Panel 2: Development of the European Patent System - Video
U.S., Europe look to improve commercial ties with Cuba
As the United States moves towards restoring diplomatic and commercial ties with Cuba, the European Union is also looking to improve relations with the Caribbean island nation. CCTV #39;s Michael...
By: CCTV America
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U.S., Europe look to improve commercial ties with Cuba - Video
Britain would be European North Korea if it leaves EU, says Brown
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain would become the North Korea of Europe if the country leaves the European Union with no friends or influence, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned. Brown...
By: best channel
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Britain would be European North Korea if it leaves EU, says Brown - Video
R. Daniel Kelemen on Fixing Europe
Despite all the grim predictions, the European Union is not on the verge of collapse. Quite the contrary: if European leaders act with resolve and persistence, the union could experience a...
By: Foreign Affairs
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R. Daniel Kelemen on Fixing Europe - Video
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been campaigning for sanctions relief from traditionally friendly Southern European countries in what appears to be a strategy of dividing the European Union and undermining its alliance with the United States.
Moscow responded to last year's U.S. and European Union sanctions over the Ukraine crisis with a ban of its own on food imports from the 28-nation economic bloc.
Since mid-February, though, Putin has met with leaders of four leftist-governed European Union countries and urged them to act independently in their relations with Russia so that their mutually beneficial food trade can resume.
The blockade has deprived Russians of some of the meats, dairy products, fruits and other produce they had become accustomed to seeing on their supermarket shelves since the days of Soviet-era shortages became a distant memory. But the import ban has inflicted as much, if not more, pain on major food exporters to Russia such as Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Hungary.
The Russian Customs Service reported Friday that imports have dropped by 37% this year as the country struggles with a currency that has lost half its value mostly because of the sanctions and falling oil prices.
European foreign ministers met Friday in Riga, the Latvian capital, to review the sanctions regime and consider whether to revise or extend it, a decision to be made before a summit on March 19 and 20.
U.S. and European Union countries have imposed visa restrictions on top Russian politicians and businesspeople and frozen the foreign assets of those they consider complicit in Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region a year ago. They also accuse Moscow of backing separatists in eastern Ukraine, where about 6,000 people, many civilians, have been killed since April.
Putin first made the call for European leaders to think for themselves during a Feb. 17 meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, his first official reception in an EU capital in more than eight months.
About 2,000 Hungarians protested the visit and their government's warming ties with the Kremlin, although the public opposition abated after Orban announced that he had cut deals to ensure Russian natural gas supplies and for a major upgrade of Hungary's antiquated nuclear energy complex.
Over the last week, Kremlin officials disclosed that they were looking for ways to exempt Greece, where a leftist party took power after January elections, from the food import ban announced in August.
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Putin appeals to Southern European countries for EU sanctions relief