• Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    The Guardian, 22 October 2006

    Perhaps the most important challenge for EU foreign policy is to develop a more unified approach to Russia. The EU member-states have very similar interests in Russia.

  • Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    The Guardian, 04 August 2006

    The formation of a new government - four months after parliamentary elections - is good news for Ukraine. The coalition is broad-based: the party of President Victor Yushchenko, Our Ukraine, has strong roots in the rural west of the country; the Regions party, led by the new prime minister, Victor Yanukovich, dominates the east; and the Socialist party, the third member of the coalition, is popular among farmers in the centre.

  • Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    The Wall Street Journal, 15 March 2006

    To a first-time visitor, the capital of Belarus seems normal. People look content, streets are clean and orderly, and cafés ring with lively and frank exchanges.

  • Essay by Katinka Barysch, 06 January 2006

    The EU's enlargement to the East has been an economic success. Trade between the old and the new members is thriving. Foreign investment by West European companies has helped to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Central and Eastern Europe, and it has generated multi-billion euro profits for the investing companies.

  • Bulletin article by Urban Ahlin , 01 December 2005

    The first time that I visited Belarus, I noticed that the streets were clean, the subway ran on schedule and the people were very hospitable. On the surface, the people of Minsk seem to enjoy life.

  • Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    Newsweek, 10 October 2005

    So, is Turkey to start membership talks with the European Union? The reception could hardly be more hostile. As the public sees it, the EU is big enough already. Political leaders from France's Nicolas Sarkozy to Germany's Angela Merkel are opposed.

  • Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    New Statesman, 18 July 2005

    President Bush proclaimed Georgia a "beacon for liberty" when he visited Tbilisi in May. Georgia has certainly made great progress since people power overthrew the corrupt and incompetent regime of Eduard Shevardnadze in 2003. Nevertheless, clouds are dimming the light of that beacon.

  • Opinion piece by Charles Grant
    Prospect, 01 July 2005

    The end of enlargement would be a tragedy. Perhaps it can be saved by "variable geometry".