FPC research paper: "Trouble in the Neighbourhood? The future of the EU's Eastern Partnership"

The London-based Foreign Policy Centre has published a research paper on the future of the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP). The paper examines how the EU is dealing with EaP countries, and what these countries are expecting from this partnership. It looks deep into the whole ENP process, from its creation to its transformation by the recent events and conflicts in the region.

The paper analyses the EU’s ability to pursue and implement effectively a policy in the Eastern Neighbourhood. It also examines the strategic competition that exists between the eastern Partnership and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union. Furthermore, it highlights how the Eastern Partnership was transformed by events, but also by the responses from the six EaP countries, from a broadly technocratic exercise into a geopolitical challenge for the EU.

The main findings of the publication suggests that the EU should have a differentiated approach to the Eastern Partnership that takes into account the different priorities the countries have, and that retains similar goals for the EU. In this approach, the six countries could be divided in three different group: one composed of Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, a second one with Armenia and Belarus, and a last one with Azerbaijan.

Full paper