What ails the European allies of Donald Trump

The Council of Europe is preparing to walk back on its principles so that Russia could resume paying its membership fees

What proportion of Ukrainians really knows what NATO is and how their attitudes differ from those of their EU neighbors

Ukrainian exports to the EU have reached record volumes and continue to rise sharply. But the potential for economic integration is far from being used effectively.

Do we see an understanding of the Russian threat in the European Union?

Why is it time Europe changed its priorities

Why a big part of the Roma community is so poorly integrated all across Europe

The Kremlin's gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine are a threat to the country's energy security. What can it do to protect itself from upcoming risks

Globalisation and interdependence until recently have been seen as the guarantors of peace and cooperation. These have turned out to be the source of conflicts and the instruments of pressure

In 2017, the world will be defined by three key terms: leadership, populism and human values

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks on the human rights situation in Donbas and Crimea, and his further plan regarding these territories

My story is inseparable from my experience as a member of the European Parliament. During my term (2009-2014), I was in a position to witness the debates and political skirmishes in the House that allowed me to anticipate easily what happened recently in the United Kingdom

Vice Premier for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration on her priorities and tools, details of Ukraine’s cooperation with NATO, and Ukraine’s overall position on the international arena

In countries such as Spain, France or Germany, public perceptions on Ukraine, the Maidan and the war, are a mixture of big-picture frame alongside much confusion

The most important challenges are to lay genuinely strong and stable political foundations so that Ukraine never swerves away from its European course of reform regardless of any political uncertainties future elections may bring

By liquidity of evil, I assume that we live in a deterministic, pessimistic, fatalistic, fear-and-panic-ridden society, which still tends to cherish its time-honoured, albeit out of date and misleading, liberal-democratic credentials

It may take two generations of Ukrainians to rebuild and reorient the country, yet Ukraine won the historic and epic battle for the future

The interests and prejudices of officials and diplomats from the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe and other international agencies sometimes affect policy decisions more than they should

A number of challenges and opportunities are coming Ukraine’s way as the European gas market undergoes a major restructurin

The Ukrainian Week spoke to the President of the European Investment Bank about priorities in cooperation with Ukraine, quality control of projects that receive access to the funding and SMEs as a potential driver of Ukraine’s economy

It is in Europe’s interests to prevent Ukraine from becoming a failed state and to contribute to its democratic normalisation

The first speaker of the Seimas of the independent Lithuania and EMP until recently on the way Europe is changing its perception of Russia, the shifting "center of Europeanness", and why it is crucial for Ukrainians to resist disenchantment

Europe won’t bear the cost or the risk for the defences it needs. That won’t change until Europeans are a lot more scared or angry than they are now—which may be too late

The veterans fought for freedom and a better life in Europe. Can that peace and prosperity now endure in the face of so many new challenges?

Not everyone raised under western democracy considers freedom a universal value. Especially when it comes to the freedom of those whom they are not accustomed to noticing, hearing, or understanding

Soviet Communism was always reminiscent of the nearly Byzantine sacrosanct structure of symbolic authority, and the fusion of the sacral and secular elements of power

After 1989, East European Communists transformed into social-democrats. Those who survived lustration remained in politics at home through the 1990s and early 2000s

Discussions about effectiveness of sanctions made fruitful grounds for speculations by those inclined to fish in troubled waters. Some representatives of French business openly ignore the EU restrictions declaring readiness to invest in Crimea and other partnerships with Russia

In a comment on the crossing of the Ukrainian border by the Russian convoy for The Ukrainian Week, Daniel Holtgen, Spokesperson of the Council of Europe Secretary General, says that the CoE appeals to both sides to find an agreement which respects Ukraine’s territorial integrity and international law

Bribing Western intellectuals and exporting Russia’s peculiar ideology have long been a favourite diversion of Russian rulers

Rebecca Harms, the President of the Greens-European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament, is one of EMPs who watch the situation in Ukraine closely. During her latest visit to Ukraine, The Ukrainian Week took a chance to speak to her shortly after her return from Eastern Ukraine.

Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, Head of the Mission of Ukraine to the EU, is disappointed with the EU’s decision on sanctions against Russia

The European Commission says that threats to “punish” European companies that supply or transit gas to Ukraine by Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller are absolutely unacceptable

EU leaders claim that new sanctions against Russia could be passed anytime, the European Council says in its conclusions on Ukraine passed at the session in Brussels today

The Ukrainian Week talks to Wolfgang Ischinger, German diplomat who was the Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for National Dialogue Roundtables in Ukraine, on his work, European and Ukrainian co-existence with Russia, and security threats of the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia

The EU is beginning to take concrete action against its excessive dependence on Russian gas

Serbia was forced to halt work on the South Stream gas pipeline, Vice Premier and Transport and Infrastructure Minister Zorana Mihajlović said on Monday

About 98% of the customs duties that Ukrainian iron, steel, farm produce and machinery exporters pay at EU borders will be removed by a proposal backed by European Parliament on Thursday.

How Vladimir Putin has become an example to European right-wing radicals

What could be a proper metaphor for a unilateral war – the war that has been waged in the void and with much sound and fury, yet that has no real adversaries? The war waged by the self-chasing ghost? Or that by a Don Quixote stripped of any ideals of chivalry, and confined to the fight against a series of imagined phantom-enemies?

The campaign offers Ukrainian journalists support and urges anyone to send in photos or alerts should any attack on a journalist take place

US Federal Judge Bohdan Futey talks about the new generation of Ukrainians and threats to Ukraine's independence

The west was prepared to give Kiev at least €20bn in loans if Ukraine agreed sign a landmark European Union integration agreement last month. This information is available due to an internal EU document seen by the Financial Times.

The EU should apply a softer and wiser approach to Ukrainian society in terms of freedom of movement. No Ukrainian citizen should feel a poor cousin in EU countries

Thus far the U.S. reaction to the Ukrainian upheaval has been subdued, as the Obama administration evidently fears alienating Russia, which it needs to pursue its Middle East policies. It is time for the White House to specify its options, as Ukraine stands on the brink of outright conflict

The brutal truth is that public opinion in many Western countries cares little for Ukraine – and certainly not enough to risk an open confrontation with Moscow

Western diplomats have expressed “concern” over the situation in Ukraine. They “invite participants in the conflict to negotiate” but have hesitated to state a clear stance. This is not without reason

There was a brief euphoria. The President’s incomprehensible and unexpected manoeuvre has baffled and disarmed both the opposition and the public, not to mention his loyal subordinates.

As President Yanukovych’s team is dawdling with the solution of the political crisis in Ukraine, it is trying to get the most out of his defeat, comments Viktor Nebozhenko, President of the Ukrainian Barometer think tank

The people on Maidan were defending something far greater than an association agreement with the EU. They were standing in the way of a police state, defending fundamental European values and defying the post-Soviet order imposed by Russia, The Economist writes

The EU must now do everything it can to help the Ukrainian people integrate with Europe, bypassing the gangster regime around Mr Yanukovych.

Despite the growing outcry over immigration, reports show that many immigrants work much harder than native Britons, contribute huge amounts in taxes, and add to employment opportunities

Being in the centre of a clash between civilizations of the East and the West, Ukraine is both a detonator and an object of that clash. In many aspects, its choice is crucial to itself - and Europe's future

Former co-rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for Ukraine Hanne Severinsen says that turning point, which Vilnius summit could become for Ukraine, seems now to have been lost by a Regime that only has their private interests to fight for.

EU member-state embassies should transform into portals between the past and the future, rather than reserves of Euro-robots sending some to heaven, and others to purgatory

Ukraine’s economic relations were originally European. So were its social lifestyle and institutions

On November 21, the Verkhovna Rada will vote on the European integration laws first thing, Speaker Volodymyr Rybak announces.

Postponed Association Agreement signing may become an effective tool to put pressure on Yanukovych, but will make Ukraine more vulnerable to Russia

Ukraine will remain a friend to a democratic Russia in the future. Now, Ukraine and Russia are bound to bid farewell to one another

The ex-premier’s intention to run in the presidential election may discourage Yanukovych from releasing her in exchange for the Association Agreement

Under the cover of European integration, the government has pushed lobbied initiatives through parliament

Stalin’s moves to establish communist governments in Central and Eastern Europe relied largely on local elements and tools already tested in the USSR

Parliamentary Assembly's written declaration No.554

As the November Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius draws closer, doubts fade that Kyiv and Brussels will sign the Association Agreement. How they see its implementation, is the question

Linas Linkevičius: Countries are free to choose whom they want to join. Their decision depends on arguments. When someone lacks arguments, temptation arises to use pressure and blackmailing

Ukraine's oligarchs have benefited in the past from the Soviet-style, opaque politics. But analysts say they are ready to sacrifice some of that to EU regulation, Robert Coalson reports for Radio Liberty

Moscow’s efforts to push Ukraine away from the EU have only led to growing the number of supporters for Kyiv's integration. Now, the Ukrainian government has to roll up its sleeves and make sure the Association Agreement is signed at the Vilnius summit, political consultant Yuriy Kochevenko writes for EurActiv.

Ukraine lands 87th out of 156 in the World Happiness Report 2013, experts estimate for the UN

Ukraine is losing leadership in European integration progress among Eastern Partnership countries. This conclusion is based on the 2013 European Integration Index for Eastern Partnership Countries, presented by the Renaissance Foundation in partnership with the Open Society Foundations in Kyiv today

Developments in Ukraine and the lack of effect from the standard techniques of the Russian World have unnerved Vladimir Putin. This may push the Kremlin to radical steps to disrupt the signing of the Association Agreement and DCFTA with the EU and to eliminate the threat of a possible shift in Ukraine’s foreign policy after the 2015 presidential election

Günter Verheugen (SDP), a former European Commission vice president sees “double-standards” in the German government's handling of Ukraine's bid to conclude an association agreement with the EU, EurActive reports.

The path from kroon to euro and decisions from 20 years back that make Estonia’s finance minister proud today

The PACE Resolution on keeping political and criminal responsibility separate provides the legal foundation for the prevention of political vendettas in the future, despite the fact that it does not mention Ukraine

Bulgaria recently published a list of former KGB agents in the country and reveals the hidden impact of its totalitarian past on the nation’s current life

Creeping authoritarianism and state-engineered Islamization can estrange Turkey from its Western neighbors and embroil it even more closely in the turmoil in the Middle East

A series of sex- and-bribery scandals in the new EU states is clouding the EU’s progress in Eastern Europe, reports GlobalPost

During his visit to Kazakhstan British prime minister said the EU should extend its membership deeper into the former Soviet Union, calling for its borders to run from the Atlantic to the Urals, The Guardian reports.

Sikorski said that Ukraine had “time until the end of the summer, if it wants to sign the Agreement in Vilnius,” reports EurActive

The Venice Commission considers the National Referendum Law to not fully comply with international standards, says the official opinion disclosed on the Commission’s website

Key judicial and rule-of-law reforms in Ukraine must not only be adopted but carried out ahead of the November Eastern Partnership Summit, foreign affairs MEPs told the Ukrainian foreign minister, Leonid Kozhara, at the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Should the United Kingdom leave the European Union? It is the issue that has split Britain’s politicians

The Yanukovych regime is sticking to its utilitarian approach to European integration, while presenting it as the pragmatic protection of Ukraine’s interests.

Yulia Timoshenko`s case and its influence on the future of EU-Ukraine relations were one of the biggest issues discussed at the 6th Europe-Ukraine forum held in Budapest.

European Commission adopted today the proposals for Council Decisions on the Signing and Provisional Application, and on the Conclusion, of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, including its Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, states the official website of the organization.

Czech Republic, as well as all the Visegrád countries would like to see Ukraine sign the Agreement soon

Democracy and the rule of law in post-Soviet Ukraine

Ukraine must have its own national history, not one dictated by Moscow. And the Ukrainian Insurgent Army is one of its elements.

In order to avoid continued manipulation by the Ukrainian government, the West should focus on direct contacts with Ukrainian society more, and thus form its own concept of the processes in Ukraine

To regain its status as a natural part of Europe, Ukraine needs to break free from Russian and Soviet colonial heritage

Ukrainian-European or the Soviet-Russian civilizational model will win out: with the former, Ukraine will quickly catch up with its Western neighbours. With the latter, it will likely cease to exist

In the face of a deep economic crisis in Ukraine, the achievements in Vilnius will matter to all Ukrainians

Armenia, Georgia and Moldova have much better chances of signing the Association Agreement in Vilnius than Ukraine at this point. But things may change. The ball is on the Ukrainian side

Ukraine's joining the EU would dramatically and irreversibly change the political landscape of Europe, end the division of Europe and close the saga of the Iron Curtain and the Cold War