TEN YEARS OF THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP: EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES
Keywords:
Eastern Partnership, European Union, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, UkraineAbstract
The year 2019 marks the tenth anniversary of the inauguration of the Eastern Partnership program that targets the six South Caucasian and Eastern Europe countries that border the European Union: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The program’s main objective was to bring the eastern neighbors closer to the European Union, transfer good practices, develop trade, economy and political arrangements and to help eastern partners in their democratic transitions and in implementing reforms. The main aim of this article is to present the effects of the program on EaP countries and on the European Union’s policy towards the East, as well as the main determinants of this program implementation— both internal and external. The author analyzes the most important external factors in EaP countries’ foreign policy, especially Russian policy towards the former Soviet Union and EU’s eastern policy in order to point out the basic dilemma and challenge for the EaP countries’ foreign policy: The European Union’s offer vs Russia’s offer. The author also investigates the most important internal factors that determine each country’s approach to the EaP program and the probability of its implementation. First and foremost, these factors include the interests of the ruling elites of the EaP countries that are determined by political calculation, social support and unresolved internal conflicts that affect regional relations.
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