BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Negotiators from the European Union and Iran will meet in Istanbul this month to discuss future diplomatic efforts to resolve a decade-old dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The May 15 meeting between the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who leads diplomacy with Iran on behalf of six world powers, and Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili follows a failed round of talks in Kazakhstan in April.

LUXEMBOURG, April 22 (Reuters) – European Union governments
agreed on Monday to ease sanctions on Syria to allow purchases
of oil from the opposition, in the hope of throwing a financial
lifeline to rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

The decision, taken at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in
Luxembourg, will allow European importers to buy crude oil from
Syria, if authorised by an opposition umbrella grouping.

LUXEMBOURG, April 22 (Reuters) – The European Union agreed
on Monday to lift all sanctions on Myanmar, except for an arms
embargo, despite a Human Rights Watch report which accused
authorities of complicity in the mass killing of Muslims in the
west of the country last year.

Lifting the sanctions gives more certainty to European firms
contemplating investments in one of the least developed markets
in Asia. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has significant
natural resources and borders economic giants China and India.

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Commission encouraged EU governments on Monday to start membership talks with Serbia, in recognition of Belgrade’s accord with Kosovo last week that marked a milestone for the Balkans’ recovery from the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Talks could start within the year – if all European Union capitals agree at a meeting in June – provided Serbia puts in place all the conditions of the deal meant to address the status of the Serb-populated northern part of its former province.

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union should start membership talks with Serbia, the bloc’s executive arm recommended on Monday, the last big hurdle the former pariah state had to pass before the EU’s 27 governments rule on opening the negotiations in June.

Accession talks with Serbia could begin within the year, providing Belgrade makes progress with an historic accord struck last week to resolve relations with its former province of Kosovo. The process would help drive reform in the largest country to emerge from federal Yugoslavia, luring investors to its ailing economy.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Serbia agreed to cede its last remaining foothold in the country’s former province of Kosovo on Friday, striking an historic accord to settle relations in exchange for talks on joining the European Union.

The deal, brokered by the EU, capped six months of delicate negotiations and marks a milestone for the region’s recovery from the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

BRUSSELS, April 19 (Reuters) – The European Union’s plan to
ease an oil embargo to help Syrian rebels is a “pragmatic
experiment” that could lead to further lifting of sanctions to
tilt the balance of the conflict against President Bashar
al-Assad, a senior EU official said on Friday.

Next week, EU governments will allow purchases of oil from
the opposition, as part of a broader effort to help rebels
waging a two-year uprising against Assad in which an estimated
70,000 people have died. The conflict is broadly in stalemate.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Serbia and its former province of Kosovo struck an historic deal on Friday to settle their fraught relations, opening the door to European Union membership talks for Belgrade in a milestone for the region’s recovery from the collapse of Yugoslavia.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the prime ministers of both sides had initialled an agreement during talks in Brussels, capping six months of delicate negotiations after over a decade of deep animosity since Kosovo broke away in war.

BRUSSELS, April 18 (Reuters) – EU ministers must avoid
fruitless debate over which of two rival pipeline projects is
the way to cut reliance on Russian gas and both pipelines could
be built one day, EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said
in a letter seen by Reuters.

The EU executive is anxious to present a united front, while
dominant supplier Russia attempts a divide-and-rule strategy by
negotiating gas supplies with individual EU member states with
conflicting interests.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union is expected to lift all sanctions on Myanmar next week, except for an arms embargo, in recognition of the “remarkable process of reform” in the country, a document seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday.

The EU agreed a year ago to suspend most of its sanctions against Myanmar for a year, but it is now expected to go further by agreeing “to lift all sanctions with the exception of the embargo on arms”, the document said.