The European Union and the governments of Georgia and Moldova have initialled the Association Agreement between them at a private ceremony in the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry. A formal signing ceremony will be held tomorrow in the framework of the Vilnius Summit.

The Eastern Partnership Summit of leaders of the twenty eight member states of the European Union and the six Partnership countries opens today in Vilnius.

Georgian analyst George Mchedlishvili tells commonspace.eu that "Moldova and Georgia have both made it to Vilnius braving a whole range of hostile moves and threats on the part of a revisionist Russia hell-bent to drag the post-Soviet states into the past".

EU summits are rarely exciting, except if budgets are being negotiated. Vilnius is turning out differently.Richard Giragosian tells commonspace.eu that after Vilnius a new EU approach to Russia is going to be necessary.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė will meet with opposition representatives from the six Eastern Partnership countries at the end of the Summit in Vilnius on Friday. This was announced by the Lithuanian Presidency of the European Union.

The Eastern Partnership Summit also brings together civil society activists, business leaders and parliamentarians from EU countries and Six Eastern neighbours.

Joint statement by the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy on Ukraine:

The Vilnius Summit will not be a neat affair. But even with the setbacks of the last weeks it will be a defining moment for Europe's relations with its Eastern neighbours.

Details of the deal were announced in the early hours of Sunday morning in a statement issued by the European Union High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, and the Foreign Minister of Iran, Mohammed Javad Zarif.

The Armenian President positively assesses the meeting in Vienna with his Azerbaijani counterpart and said that the talks were, "in all likelihood, a new round of negotiations and a new beginning."