INTRA-REGIONAL COOPERATION IN EASTERN DIMENSION OF THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
INTRA-REGIONAL COOPERATION IN EASTERN DIMENSION OF THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Summary/Abstract: The Eastern Partnership was established by the EU in 2009 as a new institutionalframework for building cooperation between the EU and six countries from Eastern Europe andSouthern Caucasus (i.e Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine)as well as between the partner-countries themselves. The initiative was based on commitmentto fundamental values such as democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights,market economy rules, sustainable development and good governance. The idea of how to treatthe countries left after the downfall of the Soviet Union was one of the biggest challenge for theEU’s foreign policy. After the admission of Central European Countries to the EU in 2004 and2007 the Union decided to launch a program which would provide the Eastern neighbors withan alternative to membership a set of incentives for engaging in economic, social and politicalreforms. The EU decided to promote regional cooperation under the Eastern Partnership insteadof bringing the countries closer to the accession formula.The aim of the paper is to present and analyze the problem of cooperation between theEastern partners. Major question is whether the initiative has contributed to enhancing of cooperationamong the partners and if it has what tangible progress has it brought to the benefitof the whole European Neighborhood Policy.

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