KYRGYZSTAN-EUROPEAN UNION: ACETS OF COOPERATION

Abstract

Kyrgyzstan is one of the first CIS states (after Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus) with which the European Union has signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA)—a legal document  which regulates the main principles in this area.1 Before the PCA was enforced, these relations were regulated by the Temporary Agreement on Trade and Trade Measures between our republic and the European Union (signed on 28 November, 1996 in Brussels). After ratification by the parliaments of the EU member states and the Zhorogku kenesh of Kyrgyzstan, the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement came into force on 1 July 1999. It became the basis of bilateral relations in political, trade and economic, legal, and cultural spheres for the decade to come.  The PCA is particularly valuable in that the EU member states recognize Kyrgyzstan as a country with which they share “common values,”2 and both sides are committed to “strengthening the political and economic freedoms.”3 The effectiveness of this document depends on “the continuation and accom-plishment of the political, economic, and legal reforms” being carried out in Kyrgyzstan.4 The Agree-ment envisages the EU’s comprehensive approach to the need for broadening cooperation in the region as an important condition for “promoting prosperity and stability”5 in Central Asia. What is more, it notes the need for holding an ongoing political dialog on urgent issues of bilateral relations and on international problems. Not only economic cooperation, but also technical assistance to our republic is an important component of this partnership. Noting the significant differences in socioeconomic development, the European Union recognizes the Kyrgyz Republic as “a developing and landlocked country,”6 whereby one of the main goals of the PCA is to eliminate “disparities through Community assistance to the development and restructuring of the Kyrgyz economy.”7