Progress at Iran talks? The Washington Post reports:
Iranian negotiators on Wednesday accepted a draft agreement that would transfer the bulk of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile out of the country, providing a major boost for the Obama administration as it seeks to engage the Islamic republic.
But the deal must still be affirmed by the government in Teheran.
And is this really a breakthrough? Mark Medish comments in the NY Times:
Iran’s talks with the so-called P5+1 (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany) have been at least superficially productive. Tehran promised to allow inspectors to visit the Qum facility and to send a substantial amount of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France for processing. These steps could represent some progress — or at least “the beginning of the beginning” as one analyst put it — giving Mr. Obama’s engagement strategy a hint of early success. A more skeptical interpretation, prevalent among some veteran Western security analysts, is that the Iranian regime simply did the bare minimum to buy time.
Bosnia talks fail, again. BBC reports:
The talks were called by the EU and US in a bid to bring in constitutional reform and prepare Bosnia for eventual EU and Nato membership. But representatives of the three main ethnic groups rejected the proposals.
Read the joint EU/US statement here.
Poll: Belarusians would join the EU. The Eurasian Daily Monitor says that “given a choice, Belarusians would join the European Union, but decline to join the Russia-Belarus Union”.
Solana: Israel close to the EU. According to Reuters, the EU foreign policy chief said in Jerusalem:
“Israel is, allow me to say, a member of the European Union without being a member of the institutions,” he said to warm applause from a conference of business and political leaders in Jerusalem. “It’s a member of all the programs…” “No country outside the continent has the type of relations Israel has with the European Union,” Solana added, emphasizing Israel’s participation in EU research and technology programs.
Guinea is facing the prospect of an EU arms embargo, the BBC reports.
Upcoming EU Foreign Ministers meeting. The European Voice has the agenda of this weekend’s GAERC (24./25. October): Agreement on a new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan that “aims to make the various strands of the EU’s civilian engagement more coherent”; a decision on whether or not to support closing the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the top international body in Bosnia; the lifting of an arms embargo against Uzbekistan (as “extending the ban on arms sales would require unanimity, and diplomats expect that Germany – which maintains a military base in Uzbekistan – will to oppose prolongation”); probably the suspension of trade preferences granted to Sri Lanka.
Major decisions about commission and new high-level jobs might be made at the European summit on 28./29. October. The EU Observer reports:
The Swedish EU presidency is still hoping to fix the line-up of the new college of commissioners and the shape of the bloc’s future diplomatic service at next week’s summit. But the plans hang on a Czech court decision on the Lisbon Treaty. (…) Ms Malmstrom said the presidency was preparing a report to be presented to the EU leaders at the summit, which will include an update on the Czech situation and proposals for the set-up of the new EU diplomatic corps.
As far as the decision about the Council president is concerned — with Tony Blair as the most prominent and most disputed candidate — the Economist’s Charlemagne blog says that all depends on Germany: “Mrs Merkel is the key swing voter in the contest for president.”
Redesigning foreign policy: The European Voice has a good overview on European foreign policy after Lisbon.
The end of enlargement? Euractiv has a report from a conference organised by the centre-right European People’s Party, the largest group in the Parliament. The discussion also focussed on enlargement:
While nobody questioned the EU’s past enlargements – about which there are nevertheless differences of opinion - the general tone was about letting Western Balkan countries join the EU once they have truly met all criteria, as well as thinking about other solutions for Ukraine and the Caucasus.
From today’s Agenda. Parliament has a lot of interesting stuff on its plate today: Situation in Moldova; the Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia; cases of breaches of human rights, democracy and the rule of law (Guinea, Iran, Sri Lanka). Watch it live here. Plus: The parliament’s political group leaders will select the winner of the 2009 Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. Most likely it will be Memorial. The winner is to be announced at 11:00, live here.
Read today on Global Europe: A piece by Susanne Gratius (FRIDE, Madrid) about the state of relations between the EU and Latin Amerika: Reality check. Relations between the EU and Latin America should focus on what really matters.
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