Italy and Eastern Europe: A Dossier Subordinated to the Rome-Moscow Axis?

Nona Mikhelidze Over the years, Italy’s foreign policy towards post-Soviet countries has developed in the framework of bilateral relations and in the context of the Eastern Partnership (EaP). Italy welcomed the launch of the EaP in 2009, and since then has supported almost all EU initiatives under...
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Italy’s Eastern Neighborhood Policy: Georgia in Context

Marco Siddi Italy’s economic and diplomatic presence in the European Union’s Eastern neighborhood has increased since the 2000s. The expansion of trade and diplomatic contacts with Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries has complemented Italy’s long-standing relationship with Moscow, which contin...
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Engaging Ethnic Minorities: What the Catalonia Referendum Means for Georgia

Levan Kakhishvili* On October 1, Catalonians voted in a referendum to become independent from Spain. The vote was deemed illegal by the Spanish central government in Madrid. Even though police interfered in the voting process and left about 900 people injured, it has been reported that over 2.2 mill...
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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Georgia and the Candidates for German Chancellor

Bidzina Lebanidze* Germany’s next parliamentary elections will be held on September 24. According to the polls, current Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are set to win the elections once again. However, because of Germany’s political culture and electoral system,...
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German Elections 2017: Continuity at the Top, a Looming Disaster from Below

Silvia Stöber “Boring” is a word often used to describe the ongoing election campaign in Germany. The campaign will conclude on September 24 when the citizens elect new members to the Bundestag. A new government will be formed according to the results.           At first glance, not m...
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What Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine Want From the Brussels Summit

Mariam Grigalashvili Originally published in DELF The Lithuania Tribune The European Union will hold the fifth Summit of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) in Brussels on November 24. There, the leaders of EU member states will meet with counterparts from Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia an...
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Anti-migrant Rhetoric in Georgia: Do Far-right Groups Threaten Georgia’s Pro-European Discourse?

Irakli Jgharkava* Last month’s anti-migrant march in Tbilisi, baptized as the “national liberation movement”, marked an uptick in visible far-right sentiment in Georgia. The rally gathered around 2,000 people demanding the deportation of illegal immigrants and an overall toughening of the coun...
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The DCFTA – A Chance for Georgia to Benefit from the EU’s Transformative Power?

Irakli Jgharkava* The geopolitical shift resulting from the European Union’s Eastern Enlargement in 2004 led to the introduction of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), an ambitious program designed to enhance political and economic relationships between the EU and its eastern and southern nei...
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Facing the Problem of Georgian Criminality in the EU

Jelger Groeneveld* For three months now Georgia has enjoyed visa-free travel to the European Union’s Schengen zone, a fact celebrated in Tbilisi as a major achievement of the country’s European integration ambitions. Since then, Georgian media sources have raved about the numbers of Georgians tr...
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Preparations for the Eastern Partnership Summit: The Prospect of Political Differentiation

Elene Panchulidze* German Bundestag Resolution on the Eastern Partnership Countries On June 28, 2017, the German Bundestag adopted a resolution on the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries. The document emphasizes the EaP’s role as an important instrument for modernizing its participating states—A...
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