Political and economic reports

Since the last century, some of the worst plant diseases and parasites were defeated by new kinds of herbicides and pesticides. This led to the long awaited food security in the countries of western Europe and an improved productivity of cultivated land in Eastern Europe. As for today, in the region considered, the chemical agents in agriculture are not only a key trait of present day farming, but....

Food security and food safety are two concepts, both taken into growing consideration by all governments of the world, especially in sight of rising food prices and increasingly unpredictable weather events. Eastern Europe is facing some essential challenges....

Food security and productivity of land are two of the main items which nowadays draw the attention to the agricultural world sector. The need to enlarge the quantity and frequency of every kind of harvest, has led to the employment of....

From the Soviet period the Russian Federation inherited a rigid industrial structure on which it has built its present-day productive system with substantial continuity. The difficulties faced by Moscow in diversifying the national economy are damaging....

The devastating effects of the wars that occurred in the Balkans have left the region to cope with a destroyed infrastructural system. The massive reconstruction aid promoted by EU agencies and banks is hepling rebuid and improve the transport sector in the region. Are the resulting infrastructures useful in the long run? Are them fit to develope a sustainable transportation system, or will they push the region towards an environmental and social dead end street?

The expectation of the increase of European energy demand, combined with the decrease of the energy sources within the European Union (EU), stresses a growing dependence on energy importation from outside the continent. In order to reduce this dependence on Russian pipelines, a series of projects have been planned. Among these projects is the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP); a planned pipeline that directly concern Italy.

In the sixty years since starting its nuclear program, Russia has developed a substantial experience in the civil nuclear field that will be used to enter forign markets in the next years. The strength of the export strategy....

The European Commission programme, called TEN-T (Trans European Transport Network), is working as a groundwork for the enlarging and rationalizing of a trans-border transportation network. The lesser known, the less commonly utilized and the less developed of different transportation sectors is the river navigation. European inland waterways are seen as underdeveloped and their unexploited potential as means of transporting of goods is believed to be huge. Have the medium-long term effects of the planned infrastructural works, needed to carry on this project, been evaluated properly?

The Danube River is the second longest river in Europe, flowing from southern Germany to the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. In addition to its role in Europe’s history, it is also an important commercial shipping route as well as a great natural ecosystem, fundamental for the ecological balance of the European continent. For the EU the issue is how to appropriately develop the river’s strengths in light of steadily increasing traffic on this waterway. Will it be possible without spoiling its ecological richness and the life of people who rely on it?

The European Commission and the European Union have been pushing member states for ten years to adopt effective energy saving policies; Eastern Europe and the Balkans are the main targets of these regulations....

Sopecial Economic Zones (SEZ) in Russia aren't fully accomplishing their mission and role. The reasons are many....

The issue of economic growth has been at the heart of European policy for the last decade or more. In this context the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans are trying hard to revive their national economies....

During the last few years Europe, along with many other countries in the world, has been moving steadily in the direction of developing nuclear energy (to generate electrical power). Apart from Western Europe, the above mentioned framework has been gladly accepted by Central and Eastern European governments. Is it a step towards progress or a dangerous and expensive threat?

Ukraine has a huge potential to develop in the sector af agriculture. Its output is far below what can be achived through better organization and technologies. This is a look at week and strong sides wich are to be faced by Kiev....

In the last few years the European Union has been committed to diversifying the sources of energy it imports in growing quantities. With this perspective in mind, the construction of a natural gas pipeline called ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) is under evaluation. When completed, this project will transport Middle Eastern and Caspian gas resources to south and south-eastern Europe. Will it be feasible and useful?