On 7 May 2009 leading policy-makers from the European Union (EU) are scheduled to hold a high-level meeting with political leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine in order to launch a new Eastern Partnership (EaP). It is high time for EU policy-makers to renew and to reinvigorate the relationships with these east European neighbours, as indeed with the southern neighbours (the subject of a parallel initiative to develop the Union for the Mediterranean). The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) had run its course in its previous format. The EU (further) enlargement policy is running up against problems. However, the content of the EaP has so far been sketched only in outline. It has been launched at what has turned out to be a difficult moment, given the political turmoil inside some of the target countries. Much more thought – and imagination - needs to be given to how to reshape these relationships and to which tools are needed for the job. In particular:

• EU policy towards these six eastern neighbours needs to be much more closely linked with its policy towards the other European countries involved in actual or potential pre-accession processes;
  
  
• the interests and experience of existing EU member states need to be more actively and more prudently harnessed in developing the EaP, as well as the future enlargement policy, not least given the complex political geography of eastern Europe;
  
  
• the substantive content and tools of EU policy needs to be geared to the circumstances on the ground in the EaP target countries, including as regards the forms of conditionality that might be appropriate;
  
  
• a more explicit partnership should be articulated with the other international and regional institutions and agencies that are active in the region; and
  
  
• EU policies towards Russia and towards Turkey need to be taken systematically into account inthe development of the EaP from the outset and at both the macro and the micro levels.

Download