Conservative lawmakers could pledge to support Britain leaving the European Union, irrespective of what powers are returned to London from Brussels, newspaper The Independent has reported. The report underlines the growing pressure facing Prime Minister David Cameron as he contends with the rise of the eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) ahead of a May& [...]

Russia's foreign minister believes that the peace plan offered by the Ukrainian president is "unrealistic" and calls of the US and the EU to persuade Kiev to stop using heavy artillery and airstrikes against the civilian population in the country's east. “We assume that the most important thing is for Washington and Brussels to demand Kiev do the same thing they demand in any other conflict: [...]

The EU parliamentary elections have seen a marked shift towards both right-wing and Euroskeptic political parties. From the National Front to UKIP, RT has drawn up a list of the need-to-know political parties coming to prominence in the EU. The National Front far-right party in France gleaned 25 percent of the votes in the latest EU elections, according to early results. It’s well ahead of th [...]

NATO is reportedly working towards the creation of an expeditionary force composed of 10,000 troops from seven different member states as a result of escalating tensions with Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. According to the Financial Times, the force’s creation will be spearheaded by Britain and involve contributions from Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, and the Netherlands. [...]

The Ukrainian crisis has two closely intertwined dimensions: a domestic one and an external one, both testifying to the failure to manage the process correctly. Both provide abundant material for a study in abject mismanagement, with the lessons of European history consigned to oblivion. [...]

Support for Scottish independence is gathering steam three weeks before the referendum, bringing victory tantalizing closer for the "Yes" camp after its decisive debate win and David Cameron'™s attempt to make a business case for remaining in the UK. A poll for the Scottish Daily Mail newspaper released Friday showed that support for independence has surged by 4 percent, to 47 percent – ju [...]

Russia's only reaction to NATO accusations of interfering militarily in Ukraine will be a consistent position of putting an end to bloodshed and establish dialogue between warring parties in Ukraine, Russia's FM said. No facts about Russian military being present on the territory of Ukraine have ever been presented, Sergey Lavrov pointed out, while speculation on the issue has been voiced repea [...]

Greece, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany... the chorus of voices demanding an end to Russian sanctions is starting to drown out the neocon warmongering efforts of the west... Last week Germany reported that in the second quarter, its GDP declined by 0.2%, worse than Wall Street consensus. [...]

Russian gas sector should not be subjected to EU sanctions despite the situation in Ukraine, EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said Thursday. "Gas is not a suitable sector for sanctions, as in this case everyone will lose - Russia, Ukraine and the European Union," RIA Novosti cites Oettinger as saying. [...]

"Stunningly destructive" and "dismal failure" is how Nobel laureates describe growth in the European Union after destructive austerity policies and the euro crisis. Economists are casting doubt on the effectiveness of monetary policy in the 18-member eurozone, which is yet to fully shake off recession and produce sustained growth. [...]

German foreign intelligence agency has been tapping Turkey for almost four decades, reports Focus amid the ongoing spy scandal between Berlin and Ankara. Some German officials defend the practice, saying that not all NATO allies can be treated as friends. The German Federal Intelligence Service, BND, has been eavesdropping on Turkey since 1976 following the Social Democrat Chancellor Helmut Sch [...]

The €125 million in emergency EU support to its food producers may not be enough to cover the damage, as some estimates have it more than a hundred times higher. On Monday, the European Commission announced €125 million in emergency funding for European farmers hit by the Russian trade ban [...]

Further delays in the delivery of Russian aid to eastern Ukraine, which is facing a humanitarian disaster, would have been unacceptable, President Vladimir Putin has said in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “Given the obvious protractions by Kiev on the issue of the delivery of Russian aid to southeast regions of Ukraine, which are suffering a humanitarian catastrophe, a dec [...]

There have been at least two countries in Europe in recent history that undertook ‘anti-terrorist’ military operations against ‘separatists’, but got two very different reactions from the Western elite. The government of European country A launches what it calls an ‘anti-terrorist’ military operation against ‘separatists’ in one part of the country. We see pictures on Western te [...]

Switzerland has said it will not re-export European agricultural products to Russia that now can't get access to the country's market. “We have had requests from European countries, including the producers of fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meat, but we didn’t give permission to have their products imported to Switzerland and then exported to Russia,” as ITAR-TASS quotes Jurg Jordi [...]

A couple of weeks ago the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung claimed that Germany was refusing to sign off the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA). The simple reason being the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) regulation which I have written about here. [...]

The European Commission said it will provide up to €125 million from Monday till the end of November to compensate food producers coping with Moscow’s food ban. “The exceptional measures announced today will include market withdrawals especially for free distribution, compensation for non-harvesting and green harvesting. [...]

All operations on Russia's Gazprom-led project South Stream have been suspended, as they do not meet the requirements of the European Commission, Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy and Energy said on its website. “Minister of Economy and Energy Vasil Shtonov has ordered Bulgaria’s Energy Holding to halt any actions in regards of the project,” the ministry said. This specifically means enterin [...]

MOSCOW: Russia may tighten retaliatory sanctions against Western nations to include a ban on imports of cars, among other things, if the United States and the European Union impose additional sanctions on Moscow, Vedomosti daily newspaper said on Monday. Following Russia’s stand off over Ukraine, western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow including on its financial and energy sectors, and pu [...]

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has urged a rethink of the European Union's sanctions policy toward Russia, saying the measures are like "shooting oneself in the foot." “The sanctions policy pursued by the West, that is, ourselves, a necessary consequence of which, has been what the Russians are doing, causes more harm to us than to Russia,” Reuters quoted Orban as saying on the radio [...]

The European Union is reported to be planning to dissuade Latin American countries from providing Russia." “We will be talking to the countries that would potentially replacing our exports to indicate that we would expect them not to profit unfairly from the current situation,” the Financial Times (FT) quotes one senior EU official talking at a briefing on the situation in Ukraine on Monday [...]

Economists fear eurozone recovery may be derailed after German ZEW indicator plunges to 20-month low. Europe's standoff with Russia has affected the region's largest economy after economic confidence in Germany nosedived unexpectedly, fuelling fears the eurozone's weak recovery will be snuffed out. [...]