European Forum

EU launches Eastern Partnership at Prague Summit

Despite the absence of several key European leaders, the EU launched the Eastern Partnership on Thursday May 7 on a Summit in Prague. The main goal of the partnership is to "accelerate political association and further economic integration" between the 27 EU nations and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, said the participants in an agreed summit statement.

"There is a financial support from the EU and an understanding that there should be more cooperation with its neighbours," EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso stated. However many analysts pointed out that the project's European funding of 600 million euros up to 2013 was relatively modest compared to the risks of political and economic instability in the six partner countries. War and political strife in Georgia, riots in Moldova and political and economic upheaval in Ukraine underscore the need for action, but some of the wind has been taken out of the sails of the Eastern Partnership. Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko called the Eastern Partnership "a first road map" for relations with Europe. EU leaders nevertheless were keen to stress that the rapprochement with the ex-Soviet states would not lead to new members of the EU club. What they can hope for is free trade and easy visa regimes, though with strict conditions attached and on a slow and gradual basis. The EU and its Eastern partners will now seek to put some concrete measures in place including in the key energy, human rights, good governance, border security and economic spheres, according to a Ukrainian official.

EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, told reporters that the absence of the Belarusian and Moldovan presidents from the summit does not mean the countries do not want to cooperate with the EU. She said that the EU has allowed the invited countries to decide "who they will send [and] on which level they really want to be represented." Ferrero-Waldner said more important than which presidents attend the summit, she thinks that "it's most important to know that these countries all have shown a very clear commitment [that] they want to be here, that they want to cooperate with us."

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has said the Partnership does not go far enough in giving support to the six former Soviet countries that have joined it, while Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka declined to come to Prague after Czech President Vaclav Klaus said he would refuse to shake his hand. Belarus has been dubbed by many as Europe's "last dictatorship.

Moscow opposes the partnership, which it sees an attempt to reduce its influence in what it considers its backyard. On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against the creation of “new dividing lines” in Europe. But Brussels insists the new alliance is not against Russia. "This is not against Russia. In fact, as you know very well, probably Russia and maybe Turkey will be cooperating in some of the programs, that eventually will be [put] in place. This is the philosophy in which we are beginning this process," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana stated at a post-summit press conference in Prague.


Sources: Euractiv; RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty; Euronews; EUbusiness