EU diplomat nominee says Balkans, Ukraine top foreign-policy priorities:
By RFE/RL
The EU's proposed new top diplomat wants to make the Balkans and the "eastern front of Europe" the 28-member bloc's main foreign-policy priorities.
At his confirmation hearing on October 7 before the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, Josep Borrell highlighted growing tensions in the bloc with Russia, while lamenting that the world had "dramatically...changed for the worse" over the past decade.
He said the EU's international standing was under pressure from China's ascending power, disputes with the United States, and an assertive Kremlin.
"The Balkans and the eastern front of Europe, that's the priority of our external policy," the current Spanish foreign minister told members of the European parliament.
During his opening 15-minute speech, Borrell argued that the EU cannot "have ambitions to be global players if we cannot sort out problems at our own borders."
For that reason, he said Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, will be the destination of his fist official visit.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 in a move that Spain and four other EU countries don't recognize.
Altogether, more than 110 countries recognize Kosovo's statehood.
"We have to make an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo and it will be my priority," Borrell said. "I believe that if we as Europeans are not able to solve this problem in our immediate vicinity, it's very hard to believe that we are going to be a geopolitical power."
He emphasized a "balanced" approach toward Russia, amid uneasiness among Poland and the Baltic states over what they see as rapprochement efforts by countries like France and Finland toward Moscow.
Borrell, 72, said the best way "to address Russian expansionism is to help and reinforce Ukraine, their resilience and capacity for reforms and become a prosperous country."
He noted that Russia was under EU sanctions for seizing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and for "destabilizing" eastern Ukraine by backing separatists.
"We should continue extending the sanctions against Russia until we see tectonic changes" on the part of Moscow, Borrell said.
He noted that the EU had given Ukraine $16.5 billion in assistance in the past five years, and "we have to continue helping them, because if we really want to face -- let's say -- the cold challenge from the east, the best way is to create a ring of democratic and prosperous countries on our eastern border, and it's not going to be free [of monetary costs]."
Borrell also emphasized the need to bolster the EU's efforts to counter disinformation "because it is a weapon."
Thus, he said, "let me stress from the beginning of my intention to engage on the reform and integration process in the Western Balkans [and to] support democracy and [the] territorial integrity of Ukraine."
It is foreseen that the new European Commission, including Borrell as EU foreign-policy chief, will assume office on November 1. (w/Ukrayinska Pravda)
Ukraine opens antitrust probe into billionaire Akhmetov's electricity producer:
By RFE/RL
Ukraine's Anti-Monopoly Committee (AMKU) has opened an antitrust probe into the country's biggest power producer, DTEK, owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov.
In an October 7 explanatory statement on the regulator's website, the AMKU accused a unit of Akhmetov's energy holding located in the western region of Ivano-Frankivsk of "abusive economic practices."
DTEK subsidiary Zakhidenerho has been allegedly taking advantage of its "market presence" there, where its coal-fired plant accounts for 90 percent of electricity production in three regions at the so-called Burshtyn Energy Island.
In a statement, DTEK said the accusation was groundless, calling the probe "an artificial administrative intervention in market competition."
Burshtyn is a part of the power grid that is separated from Ukraine's energy system and connected to the EU's ENTSO-E system.
In August, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau accused DTEK officials of manipulating tariffs on electricity generated from coal with energy and utilities regulators that allegedly forced consumers to overpay $747 million in 2016-17.
DTEK allegedly benefited by $560 million in the scheme.
The energy producer denounced the allegation, saying there was "no legitimate basis for suspicions set out in the investigation," DTEK said in an August 8 statement.
Kremlin sees role for U.S. in helping resolve conflict with Ukraine:
By RFE/RL
The Kremlin says the United States could play a role in helping resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict given Washington's influence in Kyiv.
"The U.S. can undeniably use the influence it has over Kyiv to make Ukraine fulfill its Minsk agreements obligations as soon as possible," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on October 8, noting that Moscow wouldn't back Washington joining the Normandy Format talks to settle the conflict.
Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and France currently comprise the so-called Normandy Four, though they have not met for peace talks since October 2016.
Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backed a separatist movement in Ukraine's easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk after Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Kremlin president, was overthrown and Western-leaning Petro Poroshenko elected the same year.
A deal announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week that would allow local elections in separatist-held parts of eastern Ukraine under certain security conditions has potentially opened a path for the Normandy Four to hold talks as they look to find a solution to end the fighting, which has killed more than 13,000 since April 2014.
Separately in Minsk, Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that the conflict in eastern Ukraine could not be resolved without U.S. involvement.
A diplomatic breakthrough last week potentially opened the way for an international summit between France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine aimed at finding a way to end the fighting.
"It won't be possible to resolve the conflict without the participation of the United States," Lukashenko said.
"The Ukrainian conflict is not just a challenge to us, it needs to be addressed. If we put our minds to it, then we are capable of anything. If not, we will gather and talk but it won't be enough," he added.
Belarus is a close ally of Russia. (w/Interfax, TASS, and Reuters)
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (click to enlarge):
Time for us to now point you in the direction of this photo story by Andriy Dubchak:
