On 29-30 of September Warsaw hosted the second summit of the “Eastern Partnership” member-countries. 27 EU countries and six of their ‘eastern partners’ - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia, Ukraine and Belarus - took part in the biennial meeting.
It is rather symbolic that the event was held in Poland. It is Poland, the current chair-state of the EU, that is considered to be the glue that holds together the program of EU cooperation with its eastern partners. The main question of the summit was how the EU can promote and develop partnership with its eastern neighbors. According to Angela Merkel, the most important aspect of this particular program is to establish close connections between all the eastern countries involved with the EU, regardless of their internal conflicts or disagreements amongst them.
The European delegates decided not to sidestep some existing problems in relations with their eastern neighbors in silence. First of all, Ukraine was subjected to criticism regarding the cause celebre of Yulia Timoshenko. Polish prime minister Donald Tusk pointed out that the EU has a very high standard of human rights awareness and it would like all the countries that wish to become close partners of the EU to live up to these high standards. European media suggest that if Timoshenko is sentenced to prison the associate treaty between Ukraine and the EU won’t be signed.
The EU’s relations with Belarus are even more tense. After the first day of debates, the German Federal Chancellor was pessimistic: she stated that there is no progress towards true democracy in the country. “The EU, of course, will continue to support Belarus, but truth be told I am pessimistic after hearing what Belarusian representatives had to say”, - Ms Merkel told the press.
The second day of the summit triggered an even greater scandal: Belarus’s seat remained vacant. Officially, the Belorussian side says it was offended by the fact that its ambassador was not admitted to the dinner of the heads of state and governments the day before. However, the head of the Belorussian government, Sergey Martinov, refused to come to the summit, and Belarus' president, Alexandr Lukoshenko, couldn’t take part in the event as he is prohibited from entering EU territory.
At the same time, the EU promised a 9 billon euro credit to Belarus, provided all political prisoners are freed and presidential elections adhering to CSTO standards are held.
Despite the problems with Ukraine and Belarus, the results of the summit were presented in a positive vein. According to Tusk’s closing statement, the summit demonstrated that the EU and its partners share the same values. “An agreement on signing the associate treaty with Ukraine was reached on the summit’s field, as well as an agreement on launching talks on creating a common trade zone with Moldova and Georgia,” the PM added.
In his turn, the chairman of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, pointed out that the ‘eastern partnership’ program remains one of the EU’s top priorities and that in the 2 years of its existence considerable progress had been made. According to him, a serious step towards lifting the visa regimes with participant-states of the program was made.
The summit’s closing statement reads: ‘the peaceful resolution of conflicts, creation of a trusting atmosphere and good-neighbourly relations are indispensable for social and economic progress, as well as promotion of cooperation in the region.” The event’s participants hailed the EU’s participation in the region’s conflict-settlement processes.
Nevertheless, whether the program will bear real fruit or just result in another burst of eloquence is yet unclear. According to German political expert Cornelius Ohman, if the ‘eastern partnership’ program didn’t exist, it would have to be created, as the EU can’t pay attention only to its southern neighbors, it is also necessary to define its eastern policy. The expert also pointed out positive aspects of democracy and human rights support in post-Soviet space.
It is true that Europe can’t exist without a clear eastern policy. However, for this policy to become successful, its fruits should be seen by the general populations of EU’s ‘eastern partners’. As another German expert, Stephan Meister, told Vestnik Kavkaza, the Union allocates great sums of money to the South Caucasus, but the countries’ general populations have nothing to gain from these sums.
The lifting of visa regimes could become this necessary step, beneficial to common people as much as to governments. It would also help increase the influence of European culture in the South Caucasian states and promote democratic and liberal values.
At the same time, it is obvious that European policy towards unsettled conflicts in the region is still weak. Despite the final statement of the summit’s declaration, the EU’s role in conflict settlement, especially in the South Caucasus, is mediocre at best.
And there’s always the question of what the partner-countries expect of the EU. It seems that they want more than the Union is able to give. According to Hunter Verheugen, a former EU commissioner, four of the six partner-countries would like to enter the Union, and they can’t agree to the partnership’s high demands unless they can expect the reward of membership at the end. The EU, in its turn, is in no way ready to accept new members.
Real implementation of the program’s goals is complicated by a number of factors. First of all, it is the difference between the post-Soviet countries expectations and the intentions of the EU, which is also not unanimous on the importance of its eastern program (for example, the French and UK leaders didn’t attend either of the partnership summits). Europe is preoccupied with its own problems, while the interests of each of its eastern partners often comes into contradiction with other partners’ interests. So in general the prospects for this partnership project don’t seem to be bright.
Orhan Sattarov, Head of VK’s European bureau
