Tag: Eastern Partnership

Tamar Beruchachvili, Georgia's deputy state minister of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, told EurActiv that the country’s new policy towards Russia “would certainly not jeopardise relations with the EU”.

The EU has gained valuable experience in recent years in achieving visa-free travel for the citizens living in its neighbourhood. After the countries of the Western Balkans, the next on their way toward achieving visa-free travel are its eastern partners, with Russia, Ukraine and Moldova leading the way. However, this goal is unlikely to be achieved in the short term.

Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan refused to sign a declaration, condemning the deterioration of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Belarus, at the Eastern Partnership summit in Warsaw on 30 September.

Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz analyzes the unavoidable dilemmas that prevent the EU from consistently applying its democratic values in its relations with its neighbourhood.

The North African revolutions have turned the review of the European Neighbourhood Policy into a stormy debate, writes Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz in this analysis. However, Europe should at the same time reconsider its ties with some of its eastern authoritarian neighbours.

To illustrate the changes in Ukraine under its new leadership, the country's foreign minister, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, referred to three bridges in Kyiv, the construction of which had been stagnating for the past five years. Now people can see that they are actually being built, he told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

The EU's Eastern Partnership will gain momentum next year when Hungary and Poland share the EU presidency, but gaining support on funding from Western member states will still be tricky, warned speakers at an seminar last week (1-2 December). EurActiv.cz reports.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenka's geopolitical game has reached a dead end – EU dialogue has halted, Russia is turning against him and the country is now facing the prospect of Russia-initiated regime change, writes Balazs Jarabik, associate fellow at Madrid-based think-tank FRIDE, in a July commentary sent exclusively to EurActiv.

The EU lacks a concerted policy towards the Black Sea region and is becoming increasingly fragile, inward-looking and even Islamophobic, Suat Kiniklioglu, deputy chairman for external affairs in Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, told EurActiv Germany in an exclusive interview.

Ukrainian citizens face a "Visa Berlin Wall" when trying to enter the EU and the visa requirement procedures of European consulates are similar to those in communist Russia, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Kostyantyn Yeliseyev told EurActiv Germany in an interview.

Human rights activists in Belarus said on 25 March that two convicts were executed last week. The news triggered protests from European parliamentarians.

The European Union should make careful use of "carrots" with the authoritarian regime in Belarus in its attempts to boost democracy, the country's opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Belarussian police yesterday (16 February) dispersed an opposition rally and detained about 20 protesters expressing solidarity with ethnic Polish activists detained the day before. The move was strongly condemned by the European Union.