Some will say that after a considerable amount of time, expansion is the first piece of good news coming from Old Lady Europe. However, not everyone is enthusiastic about it, especially in Croatia – the 28th member as of July 1st. To put it more clearly, the very first toast could leave some with a bad taste in their mouth should they make it with prosek – the indigenous Dalmatian dessert wine variety. Accession to the EU could mean – hello EU, goodbye prosek!

Jordan and Armenia signed on Monday an educational and scientific cooperation agreement, under which both sides will provide the other with scholarships to attend higher education and scientific institutions in either country.

The Padma Shri awardee was invited by Monika Mohta, India's ambassador in Warsaw, as part of her efforts to showcase India's soft power there. Rajiv Chandran of the UN, Geeta's husband, recounts how surprised they were by the popularity of Indian arts and culture there. During her visit, Geeta inaugurated the India Day at the University of Poznan and the Asia Week at the Gdansk University.

A group of Romanian high school students is set to arrive in Israel on Monday as part of broader exchange programs that have helped crystallize strong relations between the two countries in the fields of education and Holocaust remembrance.

Israeli parliamentarians must establish a Knesset caucus aimed at “reinforcing” relations between Israeli and Jewish communities abroad and “especially in Europe,” Israeli Jewish Congress CEO Michel Gourary said on Wednesday.

But when Western diplomats avoid making public statements in support of human rights and democracy in Azerbaijan, Azeri society loses confidence in Europe. Moreover, private diplomacy is failing to yield results; and year by year the restrictions on freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association increase.

Erdem Gunduz, the “Standing Man” performance artist who instigated a wave of peaceful protests throughout Turkey, participated in the Kennedy Center’s Cultural Exchange Visitors Program in 2007. The two-week arts education program, developed with the State Department, brought four modern dancers and two hip-hop dancers from Turkey to Washington and New York.

It’s been 15 years since the people of Ireland approved the Good Friday Agreement, and President Obama called the achievement -- and the progress that followed it -- extraordinary. “For years, few conflicts in the world seemed more intractable than the one here in Northern Ireland. And when peace was achieved here, it gave the entire world hope.”