European Union

With $175bn worth of annual business between the two blocs, a free trade deal seems only sensible, yet visas and vested commercial interests remain obstacles.

A deal in Brussels to update the bloc's 25-year-old Stability and Growth Pact on spending and borrowing rules could lead to new EU bonds and regulations. Yet it could also help the populist far-right.

Politics were played down when Russia brought former Soviet states into a trading bloc to counter the EU. But suspicions over deeper motives were there from the start. Sanctions are a major test.

Georgia has never been so close to its historic drive to re-integrate into the West. It could gain EU membership, yet a government preoccupied with its own grip on power jeapordises this dream.

The united response to Russia might have been the exception rather than the rule. It has long proved difficult for the EU to agree on foreign policy positions.

An essay analysing the rhetoric and reality of Russian-Chinese moves towards a genuine multi-polarity and the way in which European states are dealing with it

Italy's new premier Giorgia Meloni has brought stability to Italy's turbulent politics which raises the prospect of her fulfilling a broader leadership role in European affairs