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'Eastern Partnership' idea
24.05.2008, 22:13
Foreign ministers' meeting is to be held on 26 May in
Brussels. On that occasion, Poland and Sweden are to launch joint proposals for
a new eastern Europe policy, in a mini-version of France's "Mediterranean
Union." The project met with positive reactions in the European
Commission.
The "Eastern Partnership" would be a multinational forum between the
EU-27 and neighbouring states Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan,
aiming to negotiate visa-free travel deals, free trade zones for services and
agricultural products and strategic partnership agreements with the five
countries.
It would also launch smaller, bilateral projects on student exchange,
environmental protection and energy supply, but would avoid the controversial
topic of EU membership perspectives.
Dictatorship Belarus could join at a technical and expert-level only. Russia
would also be invited to cooperate on local initiatives, involving the
Kaliningrad enclave for example.
The eastern set-up would not have its own secretariat, like the Mediterranean
club, but would be run by the European Commission and financed from the 2007 to
2013 European neighbourhood policy budget. A commission official would be
appointed as its "special coordinator."
Following the foreign ministers' debate, Warsaw hopes to secure formal approval
at the EU summit in June and to start detailed work on the "partnership"
by the end of the year.
The upcoming French EU presidency - keen to secure Polish support for its
Mediterranean baby - is warming to the idea, with French leader Nicolas Sarkozy
to hold talks with Polish prime minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw next week, PAP
writes.
Germany, the UK and the Netherlands have also voiced initial support, but Spain
and Italy could prove problematic while Ukraine will have to be persuaded the
partnership offers something better than the current EU neighbourhood package.
"The EU's eastern policy is of interest to the whole EU," Polish commissioner Danuta Hubner told to the Rzeczpopspolita newspaper. "The weakness of [previous] northern, eastern or southern European Union policies was that they existed only in the sphere of interest of member countries in those regions."
Source: www.EUobserver.com