Experts comment on Eastern Partnership project's future

The summit of the EU-sponsored Eastern Partnership initiative is scheduled to be held in Vilnius on Thursday. However, as the summit approaches, its results are becoming less and less clear. At first Armenia announced that it would not sign an associate membership agreement with the EU and then Ukraine said it had suspended the process of European integration.

This means that only Georgia and Moldova may sign an associate membership agreement with the European Union. Vesthnik Kavkza discussed the whole situation surrounding the project with Sergey Mikheyev and Vladimir Zharikhin.

The head of the Caspian Cooperation Institute, Sergey Mikheyev, believes that no collapse of the Eastern Partnership should be expected. He underlines as well that both Georgia and Moldova will most likely sign the agreement. According to the expert, Ukraine's decision is based on the desire to secure better conditions. The country is simply trying to bargain, he says.

The deputy head of the CIS Countries Institute, Vladimir Zharikhin, has a different opinion. According to him, Ukraine's European integration was the main issue of the project and without Ukraine the Eastern Partnership will decay and soon die.