The European Commission's Eastern Partnership proposal was in fact largely outshone by the parallel NATO ministerial meeting, which was followed much more closely by the media in Georgia and Ukraine as well as in Western countries.
According to diplomatic sources, the US had conducted a diplomatic offensive among NATO capitals in Europe, urging its allies to offer Georgia and Ukraine a shortcut to membership of the alliance.
Russia claims victory
Although the attempt was not entirely successful, NATO ministers decided to boost the existing NATO-Ukraine and NATO-Georgia Commissions, a step which in those countries was welcomed as a "de facto" action plan to join the alliance.
For its part, Russia could also claim victory. Dmitry Rogozyn, the country's ambassador to NATO, stated yesterday: "There is an open split within NATO and it will widen if NATO tries to expand further".
On Tuesday night, NATO ministers decided to resume dialogue in established EU-Russia formats, which were discontinued following the Georgia crisis. Just hours beforehand, the EU had decided to resume talks between the Union and Moscow on a new basic treaty, despite Lithuania's decision to maintain its objections (EurActiv 11/11/08).
What's behind a name?
Grigol Mgaloblishvili, Georgia's Prime Minister, said in Brussels on Monday that some people in his country had even called their children 'MAP', after the much sought-after NATO Membership Action Plan status. MAP status was denied to Ukraine and Georgia at the last NATO summit in Bucharest (EurActiv 02/04/08) after opposition from European heavyweights such as Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium.
A high-ranking European diplomat present at the event noted that, strangely enough, no parents in Georgia were apparently considering calling their newborns 'ENP', after the European neighbourhood policy. But it was precisely the deficiencies of ENP which prompted the EU to push for an Eastern Partnership, which the Commission produced yesterday at the instruction of the June EU summit.
The 15-page document, accompanied by another 12 pages of potential subjects for work and possible initiatives, offers closer ties with Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
"The time has come to make a step change in relations with these partners, without prejudice to individual counties' aspirations for their future relationship with the EU," the document reads.
Significantly, the initiative is called Eastern Partnership or EaP, and not East European Partnership, as the countries of the region would have preferred (EurActiv 07/11/08). This is because the Commission tried to distance it from the European Association Agreements (EAAs) with Central and East European countries, which contained the perspective of EU membership.
Advantages of EaP
Although it may have disappointed its targets regarding to its main message, the EaP contains several new dimensions compared to ENP.
Dr. Sabine Fisher of the Paris-based Institute for Security Studies told EurActiv that EaP goes beyond ENP in several respects:
- It presents itself explicitly as a political message of EU solidarity, unlike the previous, largely technical ENP documents;
- it suggests that the Partnership and Cooperation Agreements be replaced by Association Agreements (following the Ukrainian model);
- it suggests the establishment of a new instrument, the 'Comprehensive Institution-Building Programme' (CIB), on a bilateral track;
- it provides detailed procedures for the establishment of wide-ranging free trade areas and visa facilitation regimes with the ENP neighbours; the former is linked to the regional dimension through a proposed Neighbourhood Economic Community;
- it also provides clear and detailed suggestions as to how to deepen the energy cooperation with the Eastern ENP countries;
- the regional/multilateral track is considerably more political than in existing ENP documents (suggesting regular meetings from senior working level up to heads of state and government and linking them to specific, very political thematic issues)
- lastly, and possibly most importantly, it calls for fresh funding to be allocated to new initiatives. 350 million euro in new aid will go towards strengthening state institutions, border control and assistance for small companies, in addition to funds committed previously.
Belarus, which is ruled by a man many call "Europe's last dictator," President Alexander Lukashenko, must initiate democratic reforms before it can qualify for the EU aid plan. In October, the Union temporarily lifeted a travel ban on Lukashenko following the release of political prisoners.
That decision will be reviewed in March next year and, if confirmed, the Belarus president will be among the leaders of the six countries for a EU-Eastern Partners summit in Prague, to be held in the first half of 2009 under the Czech EU Presidency.
