EU focuses on its Eastern and Southern neighbours

The exercise will focus on the developments which have taken place over the past six years. These include the launch of the Eastern Partnership in Prague in May 2009, almost a year after the creation of the Union for the Mediterranean in July 2008. The former was strongly promoted by Sweden and Poland to deepen bilateral relations and strengthen multilateral contractual relations between the EU and its Six Eastern neighbours.

The assessment comes just days after the European Commission began association agreement negotiations in mid-July with Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It will also take into consideration the impact of the new Lisbon Treaty which, through the creation of the new post of High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and an external diplomatic corps for the EU, provides greater continuity and stability in Union foreign policy. At the same time, the treaty specifically recognises the importance of these neighbourly contacts between the EU and its partners. Its Article 8 commits the Union to the development of a special relationship with neighbouring countries “aiming at establishing an area of prosperity and good neighbourliness”.

It also comes at a time when the new European Commission is ending its running-in period since taking up office at the beginning of the year and is developing its policy priorities for the next four years. Štefan Füle, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, will pay a key role in the exercise, and, given his background and command of Russian, is likely to pay particular attention to the six countries on the EU’s eastern border. He will do so under the overall political authority of Cathy Ashton, the High Representative, with whom he and his staff are developing a solid and constructive working relationship.

The reflection exercise is likely to take the best part of a year and any extension of the existing policy will need to be endorsed by EU governments. The mandate EU foreign ministers gave Baroness Ashton and the Commission is deliberately broad. On the basis of the progress report the Commission produced in May, they are asked “to initiate a reflection on the future implementation of the ENP and conduct consultations to this end inside the Union and the ENP partners, in view of a comprehensive discussion by the Council in the first half of 2011”.

The Commission’s report from May confirms that clearly visible progress is being made in relations between the EU and its immediate neighbours. It notes that political contacts have increased in profile and intensity, that trade has risen at double digit rates, aided by a steady process of liberalisation and regulatory convergence between the EU and its partners and that Union aid to help its partners with their reforms has increased by almost one third. Yet, at the same time, it concludes that “much remains to be done if the ENP’s goals of shared stability, security and prosperity are to be achieved”.

Under the neighbourhood partnership programme, the EU is working towards deep and comprehensive free trade agreements with its partners as they align their standards with the Union’s, implement the EU’s wide range of internal market legislation and gradually integrate their economies with Western Europe’s. The policy also includes gradual visa liberalisation, measures to tackle illegal immigration, promotion of democracy and good governance, encouragement for people to people contacts, strengthened energy security and environmental protection and support for economic and social development.

The creation of a parliamentary assembly with representatives from the EU-27 and the Six, as envisaged by the Eastern Partnership, is currently blocked because the European Parliament does not recognise the validity of the elections in Belarus. But contacts between civil society are being forged and a conference in Berlin in November will adopt recommendations on ways in which the partnership can be further developed.

The EU is looking at ways to include Russia in some of the Eastern Partnership initiatives, although any decision to involve third countries in particular activities requires the unanimous approval of the EU-27 and the Six – a potentially daunting obstacle. After the summer, however, officials will examine how to turn two proposals – one practical, the other political – into reality. The first is an academic e-twinning initiative between schools and teachers – an EU programme that dates back to 2002. A meeting in early September will determine how much interest there is in Russia in participating in a scheme that links schools to different, but not necessarily all, EU and Eastern Partnership members.

The second is based on a Polish suggestion to create a group of friends for the Eastern Partnership. The idea will be explored at a meeting of senior officials in Brussels at the end of September and could lead to greater involvement of the major players in the region, such as the US, Russia, Turkey, the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The initiative is not intended to facilitate undue outside interference, but to improve the exchange of information on what each party does in the region, to coordination donor activity to avoid duplication and increase neighbourly contacts.

The extent to which countries which are not members of the neighbourhood policy should be involved in its activities will be one of the many themes considered during the review process. There may also be pressure to split the policy into two with potentially separate agendas for the Union’s eastern and southern neighbours, although the consequences of such a move are still far from clear. There will undoubtedly be efforts in some quarters to increase EU funding to support the reforms its Eastern neighbours are making, particularly as the process could last up to 20 or 25 years. However, these will inevitably run up against the budgetary constraints the EU and all governments are facing.

© Rory WATSON,
Brussels-based freelance journalist specialising in EU affairs

* First published 05.08.2010 by the “EU-Russia Centre” at: http://www.eu-russiacentre.org/our-publications/column/eu-focuses-eastern-southern-neighbours.html