The so-called institute of the special envoys of the European Union who are responsible for the settle-up the international military conflicts is rather new for Brussels. Nevertheless there is some added value in the context of further perspective of the settlement of the Ukraine – Russian conflict. It provides some practical tool for non-military post-conflict resolution.

In a 60-minute interview in mid-January 2017, the U.S. president Donald TRAMP criticized the European Union as "basically a vehicle for Germany" claiming that it was a "very catastrophic mistake" on Angela Merkel’s part to admit a million refugees - whom he refers to as "illegals". Is it still the tension between the EU and US or it slowly comes on the normalization level?

The decision of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union after the national referendum provoked a lot of discussions not only about the future of Europe and its Union but also about possible ways of civilized divorce between Brussels and London. There are different views how to deal with Brexit as from the legal point of view as well as from the economic and political prospective.

This is well known fact that Iran possesses significant volumes of the deposits of the natural gas and oil. After lifting serious restrictive measures imposed on Iran by the European Union and the US more than twenty years ago, now this country begins recovering and slowly winning its own place on the European oil and gas market. It brings some very concrete threats for Russian energy companies.

Further expansion of the European Union towards the Balkan region is still going on, even despite of the tremendous geopolitical shits in the light of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine. As it was anticipated long time ago, the official Brussels is stuck to the position that Balkans should be definitely covered by the EU flag. It undoubtedly means that short-term European perspective for other Eastern European countries seems as far away.

The first trip of the US President to Europe created mix feelings regarding the anticipation what a format would be for further development of the EU – US strategic relationships. However, despite anything, there is a fact that the US President is not very much involved and even not interested to be involving into the European affairs. At the same time, the expansion of the NATO at the expense of Montenegro has proved opposite thinking.

Despite the outcomes of the Brexit and readiness of the Great Britain to leave the European Union in the nearest future, the official Brussels is seeking for the new global trade opportunities. Japan, Mexico and Singapore are among the key priorities. Nevertheless, the European Union is also negotiating with ASEAN and New Zealand regarding the establishing of the new trade relations. Those trends correspond to the national interest of Ukraine

The long expectation for the visa-free regime for the citizens of Ukraine to come to the European Union countries will be shortly finalized. But the first period of this regime bears concreate threats and challenges for citizens that could negatively affect the whole idea of the free movement in the framework of European continent. What are the ways to avoid negative consequences of this process?

The new US Administration is thinking how to follow the relationships with the EU and NATO – key transatlantic partners, which were the pillars in the period of long-term confrontation with the former Soviet Union. But now there are so many unclear challenges hybrid threats coming not only directly from Moscow, but also from the very close ally – from the United States. What Ukraine should expect from those developments, and how the EU might face it?

Companies exporting from Europe to the US are spread out right across Europe, and are based not just in cities but in thousands of small towns and even villages.

In total, more than 180,000 European companies export to the US today, and almost 90 percent of them are smaller firms with less than 250 employees. These companies would be the first beneficiaries of improved trade relations between the EU and the US. In total, 30 million jobs in the EU are linked to exports to other countries.