Introduction

EU pledges support to IDPs in Georgia but there is still a long way to go, says new report

March 21st, 2012, Geneva: Foreign ministers of the 27 EU countries in Brussels have pledged their support to help internally displaced people (IDPs) in Georgia. In a new report released today, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) explores the importance of involving IDPs in Georgia when planning programmes to address their needs.

Tbilisi - Transparency International Georgia (TI Georgia) has issued a new report about the renovation of collective centers for Georgia’s internally displaced persons. The report was prepared within the Making Aid Work for Georgia project with the financial support of the Open Society Georgia Foundation.

Three years after their August 2008 war over the South Ossetia region, tension is growing again between Russia and Georgia, and talks are needed to restore stability and create positive momentum in a situation that is fragile and potentially explosive. Diplomatic relations are suspended, and the two have only started limited negotiations, with Swiss mediation, on Russia’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership.

Georgia/Abkhazia: Back Home, but in Limbo

Abkhaz Authorities Curb Ethnic Georgian Returnees’ Rights

Brussels, 25/05/2011

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1. OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Georgia and the EU first established contractual relations in 1996 through a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement which entered into force in 1999. On this basis, the EU-Georgia European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan (ENP AP) was approved in November 2006 for a period of five years.

This meeting note is based on contributions made by participants at a workshop on confidence-building measures in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area. The workshop took place at IPI's Vienna office.

The workshop focused on how confidence-building measures (CBMs) have been used to reduce tensions and build trust between parties in several conflict situations throughout the world. It also briefly reflected on experience with CBMs in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area. 



A series of recent international conferences have pushed the Circassian question on to the international agenda. The historical background to the relationship - and possible future developments - between Georgia and the North Caucasus are considered.

By Sufian Zhemukhov for openDemocracy

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There have been many fluctuations in Russian-Georgian relations, but before August 2008 one constant in this