Annual EBRD Meeting in Samarkand

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Photo by Ildar Garifullin on Unsplash The annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will be held in Uzbekistan On May 16-18, the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will be held in Samarkand, under the general main theme – “Investing in Resilience”.  The…

New Constitution Defines Future of Uzbekistan

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Photo by Catherine Zaidova on Unsplash In accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan, a national referendum on the draft constitutional law “On the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan” will be held on 30 April of this year, writes Fanil Kadyrov. The issue of the need for constitutional reform was first…

Work and Residence Permits for Migrants

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Photo by Darren Wanliss on Unsplash MEPs have backed draft EU legislation to issue work and residence permits more quickly for nationals of third countries and to improve their rights. With 47 votes in favour, 13 against, and no abstentions, the Civil Liberties Committee adopted a report updating the 2011 single permit directive foresees a single administrative procedure for…

Time to Bin the Ban

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Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash                 Having cancelled five national conferences because of Covid and then the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the UK Liberal Democrats finally took to the stage last week. Leader Sir Ed Davey’s speech met with strong applause, but when he delivered the line “If you…

EU-US Relations

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Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash The United States and the European Union share the most comprehensive and dynamic economic relationship in the world. That is the key message from a joint statement issued on Saturday by US President Biden and EC president Ursula von der Leyen. The long statement also  said the partnership is based on “shared…

Europe’s Looming Pension Crisis

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Photo by Isaac Quesada on Unsplash President Emmanuel Macron’s stand-off with France’s trade unions over his pension reform plans are widely reported as a peculiarly French issue. That should read ‘wrongly’ reported because pensions are a looming crisis of disastrous proportions for the whole of Europe, writes Giles Merrit. Most EU countries’ state pension schemes are unaffordable, private…

Croatia Adopts the Euro and Joins Schengen

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Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash Today, 1 January 2023 Croatia adopts the euro as its currency and fully joins the Schengen area. The EU said last Friday that this “marks an important milestone” in the history of Croatia, of the euro and Schengen areas and of the EU as a whole.  “It follows a period of intensive…

The New Uzbekistan – a Reliable Partner in a Changing and Interconnected world

Vladimir Norov

We publish here in full the text of the speech given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan H.E. Vladimir Norov, at a round table conference held on 18 December at Archazor in Uzbekistan. I warmly welcome you to our already traditional New Year’s Eve diplomatic event, which this time takes place in the beautiful…

Russian Invasion of Ukraine Exacerbates World Food Prices

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Photo by Simon Goetz on Unsplash The global food price crisis has only been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.  It is actually due to more structural and systemic problems in the commodities market, creating hunger and threatening people’s livelihoods, points out the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) in its own initiative opinion, adopted at the December plenary. Fuelled…