ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller sits in on a press conference by the Russian Energy Minister following talks on energy security in Berlin, on May 30.(JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Natural gas prices in Europe are in the middle of a structural transition away from oil indexed contracts to contracts dependent on the spot price of natural gas. This transition has already occurred in more liberalized markets such as the United Kingdom, but now Russia is being forced to change its contract structure toward spot prices of natural gas. On May 23, Italian energy company Eni signed a deal with Gazprom in which, for the first time, Gazprom allowed the price to be determined by the spot market for natural gas instead of being linked to oil prices. Russia has long fought to keep the price formulation linked to oil prices, as that arrangement is more lucrative. While Italy is the first country for which Moscow had to give up this pricing mechanism, it certainly will not be the last. With new

A valve is tightened at eastern Ukraine's Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske underground natural gas storage facility May 21.(ALEXANDER ZOBIN/AFP/Getty Images) Analysis It appears as though Ukraine and Russia are willing to compromise on energy deliveries despite concerns that they would not. On June 2, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller announced that his company received payments from Ukraine for February and March natural gas deliveries, worth a total of $786 million. In response, Gazprom agreed to postpone the deadline by which Ukraine would fully repay its debts and begin pre-payments for future deliveries from June 2 to June 9. Gazprom has also indicated that it would be willing to lower the natural gas price from its initial offer of $485 per thousand cubic meters, or mcm, of gas to $385.50 per mcm if Kiev repaid its debts. That is not to say the situation is resolved entirely. The price tag for natural gas is still much higher than Ukraine initially demanded ($268.50 per mcm), and the amount

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta (C) with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw.(JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary The crisis in Ukraine, and Russia's aggressive tactics there, have opened the door for greater cooperation among countries from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, especially on defense and energy issues. If Poland and Romania, the two largest countries in the region, decide to pursue a closer alliance structure, other smaller countries in the region could follow. However, most countries in Central and Eastern Europe are more interested in developing bilateral ties with the United States than with each other, and substantial foreign investment on energy and defense would be necessary for any alliance to work. As a result, the United States will have to play a significant role in developing a cohesive alliance in the region. Analysis The events in Ukraine have had a deep political and emotional impact in Central and Eastern Europe. Countries from Estonia

EUROPE June 2: The European Commission will present its 2014 country-specific recommendations in Brussels. June 2: Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades will meet with Turkish Cypriot Leader Dervis Eroglu. June 2: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Chairman-in-Office, Swiss President and Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter will hold official meetings in Azerbaijan after his arrival June 1. June 2: An International Monetary Fund mission will arrive in Bucharest for the third review of a stand-by agreement finalized in September 2013. June 4: The European Commission will present the details of its 2014 Convergence Report assessing the readiness of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden to adopt the euro. June 4: The EU Permanent Representatives Committees, Coreper I and Coreper II, will meet in Brussels. June 4: U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Poland on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the country's first de

The abdication of Spanish King Juan Carlos I, announced June 2 by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, will probably leave bittersweet feelings. In the almost four decades he sat on the Spanish throne, King Juan Carlos simultaneously served as a bulwark of democracy and a symbol of a decaying institution. The monarch leaves the throne at a time when the entire Spanish political system and the institutions that sustain it have been called into question. The mainstream media has amply described the king's role during the 1970s, but this does not diminish the importance of his actions at the end of Francisco Franco's dictatorship. When Spain's longtime dictator died in 1975, it was not a given that the Iberian country would become a democracy. Franco himself had been certain that the king would maintain much of the old regime's political framework. It took significant courage and talent for Juan Carlos to negotiate a transition to democracy and the writing of a new consti

A valve is tightened at eastern Ukraine's Bilche-Volytsko-Uherske underground natural gas storage facility May 21.(ALEXANDER ZOBIN/AFP/Getty Images) Analysis It appears as though Ukraine and Russia are willing to compromise on energy deliveries despite concerns that they would not. On June 2, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller announced that his company received payments from Ukraine for February and March natural gas deliveries, worth a total of $786 million. In response, Gazprom agreed to postpone the deadline by which Ukraine would fully repay its debts and begin pre-payments for future deliveries from June 2 to June 9. Gazprom has also indicated that it would be willing to lower the natural gas price from its initial offer of $485 per thousand cubic meters, or mcm, of gas to $385.50 per mcm if Kiev repaid its debts. That is not to say the situation is resolved entirely. The price tag for natural gas is still much higher than Ukraine initially demanded ($268.50 per mcm), and the amount

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (R) speaks in Buenos Aires as Economy Minister Axel Kicillof looks on Feb. 12.(DANIEL GARCIA/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Argentina took one step closer to normalizing its financial relationship with the outside world May 29, when the government announced a deal that would settle outstanding debts with the Paris Club, a group of 19 public creditors including mostly European countries, the United States, Canada, Australia and Russia. After 13 years of default, Argentina has promised to pay back a total of $9.7 billion over the next five years, with the first payment of $1.15 billion to be paid in two installments in July 2014 and May 2015. Resuming payments will open the door for these public creditors to once again lend money to Argentina. Thus, the deal is an important phase in the process of Argentina's regaining access to international credit markets, which Buenos Aires will need if it hopes to avoid an economic crisis. Argentina i

Participants attend the two-day Ministerial Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement on May 28 in Algiers, Algeria.FAROUK BATICHE/AFP/Getty Images Summary Foreign ministers from around the world gathered in Algiers on May 28-29 for the 17th Ministerial Conference of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries. With representatives from Africa, the Middle East and Asia present, the outcomes of the meetings barely made international headlines. The Non-Aligned Movement, formed in Belgrade in 1961, was the brainchild of several national leaders who, like India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and Indonesia's Sukarno, were part of a new generation of political leadership brought to power as colonial regimes crumbled in the 1960s. Designed as an alternative to the competing U.S. and Soviet-led alliance structures of the Cold War, the Non-Aligned Movement has struggled to define itself since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The bloc has found new life in recent year