Members of the Eastern Partnership.

The Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a project which was initiated by the European Union (EU).^[1] It was presented by the foreign minister of Poland with assistance from Sweden at the EU's General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on 26 May 2008.^[2] The Eastern Partnership was inaugurated in Prague on 7 May 2009.^[3]

The first meeting of foreign ministers in the framework of the Eastern Partnership was held on 8 December 2009 in Brussels.^[4]

History[link]

The Eastern Partnership is meant to complement the Northern Dimension and the Union for the Mediterranean by providing an institutionalised forum for discussing visa agreements, free trade deals and strategic partnership agreements with the EU's eastern neighbours, while avoiding the controversial topic of accession to the European Union. Its geographical scope is to consist of Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.^[5] Unlike the Union for the Mediterranean, the Eastern Partnership will not have its own secretariat, but would be controlled directly by the European Commission.^[6]

It was discussed at the European Council on 19 June and 20 June 2008, together with the Union for the Mediterranean.^[7]

The Czech Republic endorses the proposal completely, while Bulgaria and Romania are cautious, fearing that the Black Sea Forum for Partnership and Dialogue and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation could be undermined. Meanwhile, Germany, France and others are not quite happy with the possibility that the Eastern Partnership will be seen as a stepping stone to membership (especially for Ukraine), while Poland and other Eastern states have explicitly welcomed this effect.^[8]

The Eastern Partnership was officially launched when the Czech Republic invited the leaders of the six members of the initiative. Meanwhile, Germany attended the summit to signal their alarm to the economic situation in the East. Russia has accused the EU of trying to carve out a new sphere of influence, which the EU denies, stating "We're responding to the demands of these countries," said one official, "and the economic reality is that most of their trade is done with the EU".^[9]

Members[link]

The Eastern Partnership consists of the post-Soviet states: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, and the European Union. There was much debate over whether to include Belarus, which the EU considers to be an authoritarian dictatorship. Belarus was eventually invited to participate due to EU concerns of too much Russian influence.^[10]

On 30 September 2011 Belarus seemingly withdrew from the initiative because of: "unprecedented discrimination" and a "substitution" of the principles on which it was built two years ago.^[11] However three days later Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov refuted this.^[12]

•  Armenia
•  Azerbaijan
•  Belarus
•  European Union
•  Georgia
•  Moldova
•  Ukraine

Institutions and aims[link]

The 1st EU-Eastern Partnership Forum in Tbilisi, Georgia, in March 2012.

The Eastern Partnership is a forum aiming to improve the political and economic trade-relations of the six Post-Soviet states of "strategic importance" - Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia with the European Union.^[10] Promotion of human rights and rule of law in former Soviet states has been reported to form the "core" of the policy of the Eastern Partnership. The EU draft of the EaP states that: "Shared values including democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights will be at its core, as well as the principles of market economy, sustainable development and good governance." The Partnership is to provide the foundation for new Association Agreements between the EU and those partners who have made sufficient progress towards the principles and values mentioned. Apart from values, the declaration says the region is of "strategic importance" and the EU has an "interest in developing an increasingly close relationship with its Eastern partners..."^[13]

The inclusion of Belarus prompts the question whether values or geopolitics are paramount in the initiative. EU diplomats agree that the country's authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has done little to merit involvement in the policy at this stage. But the EU fears Russia will strengthen its grip on Minsk if it is left out. It is, however, assumed that in the long-term, Lukashenko will become less important with time.^[13]

Apart from the largely symbolic Association Agreements, the Eastern Partnership process envisages legal "approximation" and joint "institution building," leading to the creation of a new free-trade zone embracing the 27 EU states and the six partners. The policy would see visa-free travel to the EU for the 76 million people - 46 million of them in Ukraine - living in the region. Steps toward "visa liberalisation" are to be taken on "a long-term perspective and on a case-by-case basis." ^[13]

There are plans to model the concept on the Stabilisation and Association Process used by the EU in the Balkans, including a possible free trade area encompassing the countries in the region, similar to BAFTA or CEFTA. A future membership perspective is not ruled out, either.^[14]

Financing[link]

The EC has earmarked €600 million for the six partner countries for the period 2010-13 as part of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, constituting about a quarter of the total funding available to the Eastern Partnership countries in this period. The funds will be used for three main purposes: Comprehensive Institution Building programmes, aimed at supporting reforms (approximately €175 million); Pilot regional development programmes, aimed at addressing regional economic and social disparities (approximately €75 million); and Implementation of the Eastern Partnership, focusing on democracy, governance and stability, economic integration and convergence with EU policies, energy security, and contacts between people with the aim of bringing the partners closer to the EU (approximately €350 million).^[15]

Eastern Partnership and EU-Ukraine bilateral relations[link]

Ukraine is one of six post-Soviet nations to be invited to cooperate with the EU within the new multilateral framework that the Eastern partnership is expected to establish. However, Kiev pointed out that it remains pessimistic about the "added value" of this initiative. Indeed, Ukraine and the EU have already started the negotiations on new, enhanced political and free-trade agreements (Association and Free-Trade Agreements). Also, there has been some progress in liberalizing the visa regime despite persistent problems in the EU Member States' visa approach towards Ukrainians.

That is why Ukraine has a specific view of the Eastern Partnership Project. According to the Ukrainian presidency, it should correspond, in case of his country, to the strategic foreign policy objective, i.e. the integration with the EU.^[16] Yet, the Eastern Partership documents (the European Council Declaration of May 2009^[17]) do not confirm such priorities as political and economic integration or lifting visas.

Ukraine has expressed enthusiasm about the project. Ukraine deputy premier Hryhoriy Nemyria said that the project is the way to modernise the country and that they welcome the Eastern Partnership policy, because it uses 'de facto' the same instruments as for EU candidates.^[18]

Under the Eastern Partnership, Poland and Ukraine have reached a new agreement replacing visas with simplified permits for Ukrainians residing within 30 km of the border. Up to 1.5 million people may benefit from this agreement which took effect on July 1, 2009.^[19]

Relationship with Russia[link]

Russia has voiced concerns over the Eastern Partnership, seeing it as an attempt to expand the EU's “sphere of influence” in the quest for oil. Russia has also accused the EU of putting undue pressure on Belarus ^[20] by suggesting it might be marginalised if it follows Russia in recognising the independence of the Georgian breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia. “Is this promoting democracy or is it blackmail? It's about pulling countries from the positions they want to take as sovereign states”, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has asked.

Sweden, the co-author of the Eastern Partnership project together with Poland, rejected Mr Lavrov's position as “completely unacceptable”.

“The Eastern Partnership is not about spheres of influence. The difference is that these countries themselves opted to join”, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said at the Brussels Forum. The EU's position on Georgia is not ‘blackmail’ but “is about upholding the principles of the EU and international law, which Russia should also be respecting”, he added.^[18]

November 2009 President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed the Eastern Partnership as useless: “Frankly speaking, I don't see any special use (in the program) and all the participants of this partnership are confirming this to me”. However a few days later Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia does not rule out joining the EU's Eastern Partnership programme.^[21]

Russia keeps a stand of opposition towards EPP. For instance, after Warsaw Summit 2011 of EPP, Putin pointed that regarding economic crisis in EU, probably Ukraine would not join EU; instead of joining to EU, Putin offered Russia - Ukraine relationship which provides more competitive and productive economic process. ^[22]

Civil Society Forum[link]

The Eastern Partnership marks the first attempt to build a significant and institutional role for civil society into a major political process, in the form of the Civil Society Forum (CSF). The first meeting of the CSF was in Brussels on 16 and 17 November 2009, where its first Steering Committee was elected. their term lasts until the next CSF event, provisionally scheduled for November 2010.

The first meeting of the Steering Committee took place in Brussels on 22–23 January 2010, where the precise role and remit of the CSF was discussed. The next meeting was held in Kiev, Ukraine, in late March.

Criticism[link]

Although the Eastern Partnership was inaugurated on 7 May 2009, academic research critically analysing the policy is becoming available by early 2010 ^[23] Research findings from a UK ESRC research project examining the EU's relations with three Eastern Partnership member states, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova notes both conceptual and empirical dilemmas.^[24] First, conceptually the EU has limited uniform awareness of what it is trying to promote in its eastern neighbourhood under the aegis of ‘shared values’, ‘collective norms’ and ‘joint ownership'. Secondly, empirically, the EU seems to favour a ‘top-down’ governance approach (based on rule/norm transfer and conditionality) in its relations with outsiders, which is clearly at odds with a voluntary idea of ‘partnership’, and explicitly limits the input of ‘the other’ in the process of reform.^[25]

Further reading[link]

Books[link]

• Korosteleva, E.A. (2012),The European Union and its Eastern Neighbours: Towards a more ambitious partnership? London: BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies, ISBN 0-415-61261-6
• Korosteleva E.A, (Ed.), (2011), Vostochnoe Partnerstvo: problemy i perspektivy [Eastern Partnership: problems and perspectives], Minsk: Belarusian State University, ISBN 978-985-491-088-8
• Korosteleva, E.A. (Ed.) (2011), Eastern Partnership: A New Opportunity for the Neighbours?, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-67607-X
• Whitman, R., & Wolff, S., (Ed.), (2010), The European Neighbourhood Policy in perspective: context, implementation and impact, Palgrave:London, ISBN-10 023020385X

Journal Articles[link]

• Korosteleva, E.A, ‘Change or Continuity: Is the Eastern Partnership an Adequate Tool for the European Neighbourhood’, International Relations, 25(2) June 2011: 243-62
• Whitman, R., European Union's relations with the Wider Europe’ Journal of Common Market Studies Annual Review of the European Union in 2010, 49, (2011). pp.187-208.
• Korosteleva, E.A, ‘Eastern Partnership: a New Opportunity for the Neighbours?’, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Special Issue, 27(1) 2011: 1-21
• Korosteleva, E.A, ‘Moldova’s European Choice: Between Two Stools’, Europe-Asia Studies, 61(8) 2010: 1267-89
• Wolfgang Tiede und Jakob Schirmer: "The EU’s Eastern Partnership - Objectives and Legal Basis", in: "The European Legal Forum" (EuLF) 3/2009, pp. 168-174.
• Korosteleva, E.A, ‘The Limits of the EU Governance: Belarus’ Response to the European Neighbourhood Policy’, Contemporary Politics, 15 (2) 2009: 229-45
• Bosse, G., & Korosteleva, E.A, ‘Changing Belarus? The Limits of EU Governance in Eastern Europe’, Cooperation and Conflict, 44 (2) 2009: 143-165

See also[link]

• Euronest Parliamentary Assembly
• INOGATE

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eastern Partnership

• European Commission: Eastern Partnership (europa.eu)
• Eastbook.eu - Portal on Eastern Partnership: Eastbook.eu
• Eastern Partnership Community: Eastern Partnership Community (easternpartnership.org)
• Europeanizing or Securitizing the 'outsiders'? Assessing the EU's partnership-building approach with Eastern Europe
• The Eastern Partnership – an ambitious new chapter in the EU's relations with its Eastern neighbours (europa.eu, 3 December 2008)
• European Council - Conclusions (Declaration in annex II) (europa.eu, 19–20 March 2009)
• Eastern Partnership Summit (eu2009.cz, 7 May 2009)
• Joint Declaration of the Eastern Partnership Summit (europa.eu, 7 May 2009)
• Conference Eastern Partnership: Towards Civil Society Forum
• Eastern Partnership: The Opening Report - submitted by the Polish Institute of International Affairs (www.pism.pl, April 2009)
• Marcin Łapczyński: The European Union's Eastern Partnership: Chances and Perspectives - submitted by the Caucasian Review of International Affairs (www.cria-online.org, Spring 2009)
• Sebastian Schäffer und Dominik Tolksdorf: „The Eastern Partnership – ‚ENP plus‘ for Europe's Eastern neighbors“, CAPerspectives, 4/2009.
• Sebastian Schäffer und Dominik Tolksdorf: „The EU member states and the Eastern Neighbourhood - From composite to consistent EU foreign policy?“, CAP Policy Analysis, August 2009.
• "Polish-Swedish Proposal: Eastern Partnershi", June 2008.

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Štefan Füle
European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 February 2010
President	José Manuel Barroso
Preceded by	Olli Rehn (Enlargement) Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Trade and Neighbourhood Policy)
Minister for European Affairs
In office 8 May 2009 – 30 November 2009
Prime Minister	Jan Fischer
Preceded by	Alexandr Vondra
Succeeded by	Juraj Chmiel
Personal details
Born	(1962-05-24) 24 May 1962 (age 50) Sokolov, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Political party	Social Democratic Party (1989–present)
Other political affiliations	Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Before 1989)
Alma mater	Charles University in Prague Moscow State Institute of International Relations

Štefan Füle (born 24 May 1962) is a Czech politician and diplomat, since 2009 European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy in the second Barroso Commission.

Early life[link]

Füle studied at the Charles University in Prague and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Between 1982 and 1989, Füle was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He's married and has three children.

Diplomatic career[link]

He has held several positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Füle served as First Secretary of Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the UN in New York City from 1990 to 1995. His next assignment was at the headquarters of the Ministry in Prague until 1998. Then he served as the Czech Ambassador to Lithuania,^[1] also being the NATO contact point there. In 2000, Füle accepted the position of the First Deputy Minister of Defense but later returned to diplomatic work. He had served as the nation's Ambassador to the United Kingdom before being appointed as the Permanent Representative of his country to NATO.^[1]

European Commissioner[link]

Füle served as the Minister for European Affairs in the caretaker government of Jan Fischer in 2009.

Fischer's government waited for political parties to agree on one candidate to become the next European Commissioner for the Czech Republic. But the political parties were not able to agree on one name. Social Democrats nominated Vladimír Špidla and Civic Democrats endorsed Alexandr Vondra. Jan Švejnar and Pavel Svoboda were candidates of the minority parties (the Greens and Christian Democrats).

The Czech Republic was urged to announce a person's name by the President of the European Commission José Barroso. Prime Minister Jan Fischer was also offered the post but refused. There were rumors about Vladimír Dlouhý and Zdeněk Tůma being offered the post. Dlouhý was willing to accept the nomination and Tůma refused it. On 10 November 2009, the Cabinet made the decision of approving Füle's nomination for the next term of the European Commission under José Barroso.^[2]

References[link]

Štefan Füle Official Media Gallery

v t e Barroso Commission II (since 2010) Joaquín Almunia2 · László Andor · Catherine Ashton2 · Michel Barnier · José Manuel Barroso1 · Dacian Cioloş · John Dalli · Maria Damanaki · Štefan Füle · Máire Geoghegan-Quinn · Kristalina Georgieva · Karel De Gucht · Johannes Hahn · Connie Hedegaard · Siim Kallas2 · Neelie Kroes2 · Janusz Lewandowski · Cecilia Malmström · Günther Oettinger · Andris Piebalgs · Janez Potočnik · Viviane Reding2 · Olli Rehn · Antonio Tajani2 · Androulla Vassiliou · Maroš Šefčovič2 · Algirdas Šemeta 1 = President. 2 = Vice President.

v t e Cabinet of Prime Minister Jan Fischer   Cabinet Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Kohout Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Defence Martin Barták Minister of Finance Eduard Janota Minister for European Affairs Štefan Füle, Juraj Chmiel Minister of Interior Martin Pecina Minister of Industry and Trade Vladimír Tošovský Minister of Justice Chairperson of the Government Legislative Council Daniela Kovářová Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Petr Šimerka Minister of Transportation Gustáv Slamečka Minister of Agriculture Jakub Šebesta Minister of Health Dana Jurásková Minister of Education Miroslava Kopicová Minister of Environment Ladislav Miko, Jan Dusík, Jakub Šebesta, Rut Bízková Minister of Culture Václav Riedlbauch Minister for Regional Development Rostislav Vondruška Minister without Portfolio Chairman of the Legislative Council Pavel Zářecký Minister for Human Rights Michael Kocáb

Natalia Snegur-Gherman is a Moldovan politician.

Biography[link]

Natalia Gherman is the daughter of the former president of Moldova Mircea Snegur. She served as Ambassador to Austria, Permanent Representative to the OSCE and other International Organisations in Vienna (2002–2006) and Ambassador to Sweden, Norway, and Finland, with residence in Stockholm (2006–2009).

On June 29, 2009, she was appointed deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration on the proposal by Minister Andrei Stratan.^[1] In November 2009, Natalia Gherman was designated as chief negotiator on behalf of Moldova in the talks over the new cooperation agreement with the European Union.^[2]

External links[link]

• Deputy Ministers Mrs. Natalia Gherman
• Natalia Snegur-Gherman la Guvernul Marii Britanii

References[link]

This article about a Moldovan politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Miloslav Ransdorf in 2009

Miloslav Ransdorf (born 15 February 1953 in Rakovník) is a Czech politician and Member of the European Parliament for the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia; part of the European United Left–Nordic Green Left party group in the European Parliament.^[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Miloslav Ransdorf

He was videotaped sleeping through a committee session of the European Parliament^[2]

References[link]