Securing the EU’s Eastern Flank
Securing the EU’s Eastern Flank

Summary/Abstract: The European Union has declared that promoting the peaceful and democratic development of its eastern neighbours is of vital interest, and has rejected any justification of the concept of spheres of influence in the post-Cold War era. In response to the Georgian crisis of 2008, it announced the acceleration of its Eastern Partnership policy, which stops short of offering EU membership and runs parallel with the build-up of relations with Russia. In this way, the EU’s declaration clearly reflects the internal divisions of the union regarding eastern strategy in a broader sense. However, the aim, on which all member states of the union have agreed, is to make the EU’s eastern neighbours more democratic and market-oriented, to reinforce the rule of law in these countries, and to make them “more European,” bringing them closer to adoption of the values of the EU. Cooperation is organized on a bilateral basis, but also has a multilateral element, in which the union encourages the rapprochement of individual countries of the region. It was in December 2008 that the European Commission presented a meaningful proposal regarding the review and accelerated development of its eastern neighbourhood policy. In the meantime, it also analyzed the relationship between the European Union and Russia, and came to the conclusion that reinforcement of the partnership with Moscow should be continued. The opinion of observers in Brussels that the development of relations with Russia will be preferred to the eastern neighbourhood policy would thus seem to be warranted. Finally, negotiations with Moscow were resumed – despite protests or hesitation on the part of some member states – in a situation where not every article of the peace treaty closing the Russian-Georgian conflict was fulfilled; this occurred despite the EU initially declaring at top level that it would not resume negotiations with Russia unless the pact were to be implemented entirely.

• Details
• Contents