ENC In-Depth

Release of ENC Report: Threats to Stability in Wider Europe – Expert and Academic Analysis

The European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) has published a report entitled “Threats to Stability in Wider Europe – Expert and Academic Analysis” (part of the ENC Perspectives Publications), which includes academic contributions and policy recommendations from eight analysts from across the wider European neighbourhood and Central Asia. The publication focus specifically on the areas of importance in terms of EU and Member State security interests, threats and cooperative conflict resolution opportunities across wider Europe, ranging from the Middle East, European neighbourhood and Central Asia.

The publications brings together eight in-depth research articles by leading regional academics and experts with a range of long-standing and international perspectives, new ideas and government experience.

ENC Academic Conference

On the 7th of July 2017, the report was officially launched at an academic conference organised at the European Institute of Peace (EIP) in Brussels. The articles were presented on two panels moderated by Professor Bruno de Cordier from Ghent University and Associate Professor Maria Raquel Freire from University of Coimbra. A summary from the event will be available at our website shortly.

The full ENC report can be downloaded free of charge on this page.

Threats to Stability in Wider Europe

Turkish Stream gas pipeline project is unlikely to join TANAP gas project, says Andreas Marazis, Project Manager and Researcher in European Neighborhood Council think tank based in Brussels.

“With [Azerbaijani state oil company] SOCAR being a major stakeholder in TANAP, notably owing 58 percent, it is highly unlikely to approve such a proposal which will undermine its own future prospects to pump more gas to Europe after fully developing the second and third phase of its Shah Deniz gas field”, Marazis told Trend by email.

At the same time Brussels will not be enthusiastic about such a possibility given its Energy Security Strategy which prioritizes diversification of supplier countries and routes, the expert noted.

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu proposed to connect the Russia-developed Turkish Stream pipeline which envisages Russian gas supplies to Turkey and further to Europe bypassing Ukraine to the TANAP pipeline, which will pump gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field to Turkey and to Europe. Cavusoglu said Ankara will buy only 16 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year via the Turkish Stream. The remaining volume of Russian gas can be exported through Turkey via TANAP by connecting it to the Turkish Stream, he said.

Speaking about the Turkish Stream project, Marazis noted that Turkey will be able to consume gas from just one string of this pipeline, which begs the question of the gas from the second string of the pipeline.

“The supplier has not secured a consuming market yet makes the project less important compared to Nord Stream II and the Russian-Chinese project “Power of Siberia”,” he said.

Earlier, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia and Turkey will sign an intergovernmental agreement on “Turkish Stream” in one-two months to ensure construction of the first string of the pipeline by the end of 2019 for gas supplies to Turkey.

Turkish Stream project, which involves the construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea, was frozen after the relations between Moscow and Ankara deteriorated in November 2015. In Aug. 2016 the Presidents of two countries Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to resume the implementation of the Turkish Stream project.

The European Neighbourhood Council releases its new analysis entitled “Uzbekistan: Examining the Parliamentary Elections and Mirziyoyev’s Move Towards Controlled Transition”.

This ENC analysis is written by Samuel Doveri Vesterbye, ENC Managing Director and expert in Turkey and the Middle East  and Andreas Marazis, ENC Head of Research for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This paper reports the findings which were gathered from ENC’s electoral observation and in-depth field-interviews during Uzbekistan’s December 2019 parliamentary elections. The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to examine the first elections held under the leadership of President Mirziyoyev. Second, to provide a complimentary analysis about Uzbekistan’s controlled governance transition under President Mirziyoyev, focusing on the momentum gained by the death of long-time President Islam Karimov in 2016 and the new European Union (E.U.) Central Asia Strategy released in 2019.

The full analysis is available in the PDF version below.

Uzbekistan: Examining the Parliamentary Elections and Mirziyoyev’s Move Towards Controlled Transition

Kazakhstan’s electoral mood calls for more ties with Europe

The European Neighbourhood Council (ENC) conducted interviews over the recent presidential elections (09/06/2019) in Kazakhstan. Specifically, ENC conducted electoral observation and field interviews at 7 out of 35 polling stations in Zhanaozen, a small de-industrialised oil-town close to the Caspian coast.

Samuel Doveri Vesterbye is the ENC’s Managing Director and is making occasional media appearances to share his expert views on issues, mostly related to Turkey. In this present article, he argues that Kazakhstan needs to further reform itself in order to overcome an oil-dependent economy, while further deepening ties with the European Union (EU). His opinion piece (op-ed) on the subject was published online on Euractiv.

Read the full article here: https://www.euractiv.com/section/central-asia/opinion/kazakhstans-electoral-mood-calls-for-more-ties-with-europe/