THE EU STRATEGY IN CENTRAL ASIA: UCCESSES AND FAILURES

Abstract

The European Union, one of the world’s most successful integration projects, is inevitably analyzed by every expert who probes deep into the international trends of our time. The union of 27 countries, with a population of about 480 million who produce about 28% of the world’s GDP, has certain interests in Central Asia even though the EU’s geopolitical status has not yet been fully developed. The EU wants to see stable and democratic regimes with market economies in Central Asia that are guided by Western values and standards. This will reduce the region’s conflict potential and its criminological impact on the EU in the form of   drug trafficking and illegal migration and improve the conditions in which European companies are functioning in the local economies and the energy sector.

To achieve this, the European structures use various instruments ranging from the TACIS and TEMPUS programs of technical assistance designed to promote structural and institutional reforms in the economic and legislation spheres, as well as in state administration and education, to the TRACECA and INOGATE programs of transportation infrastructure modernization and political support of the human rights organizations.

Energy is the central issue of the EU’s economic interests in the Central Asian countries for the simple reason that political instability in the Middle Eastern countries, so far the main suppliers of energy resources to Europe, will obviously persist, at least in the mid-term perspective, while Europe’s oil reserves will be exhausted in the next 15 to 20 years. This will make the Caspian one of the key fuel suppliers; in fact, a developed network of main pipelines and transportation infrastructure, together with integration of the energy systems of the EU and Cen tral Asian countries, will improve the system of Eurasian communications.

Europe’s stronger position in Central Asia could balance American and Russian political influence in the region and promote closer economic relations. The EU is one of the largest customers of the Central Asian countries outside the CIS, while unified energy systems will guarantee energy exporters a stable market in the mid-term perspective.

The EU’s successful integration experience is another important instrument of its political and cultural impact on other countries and regions, which made its integration patterns highly attractive outside Europe. Africa, Latin America, and the APR followed the EU models of inter-state economic and political integration more or less successfully.

Many states remain interested in the integration initiatives: Kazakhstan, in particular, betrays a lot of interest in some of the conceptual ideas, with the aim of overcoming the still existing contradictions for the sake of closer economic cooperation with its Central Asian neighbors and within the EurAsEC