Istočno partnerstvo – pregled i perspektive

Ćeranić, Jelena (2014) Istočno partnerstvo – pregled i perspektive. Pravni život (12). pp. 343-356. ISSN 0350-0500

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Abstract

The Eastern partnership (EaP) is an initiative of the European Union governing its relationship with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. The initiative, launched at a summit in Prague on 7 May 2009, was aimed at tightening the relationship between the EU and the Eastern partners by deepening their political co-operation and economic integration. At the beginning, the EaP neither promised nor precluded the prospect of EU membership to the partner states. However, the third EaP summit at Vilnius in November 2013 could have spurred a ‘Thessaloniki moment’ (the 2003 Summit when the Western Balkans were offered a clear prospect of future integration with the EU), but it failed to deliver. Nevertheless, in 2014 the relations between the key EaP states (Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia), the EU and Russia have shifted inextricably. The EU has sped up its signing of Association Agreements and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements with Georgia and Moldova and Ukraine, with the official signing of them taking place on June 27, 2014. While the agreements are largely technical in nature, their real value is symbolic as they represent a final break from each country’s Soviet past and a hope that they might one day be converted to membership. However, the beginning of this journey of closer political and economic association with the EU, and the opening up of the free trade potential, is also the continuation of substantial uncertainty regarding how this will affect their relations with Russia which is a significant trading partner for these states. On the other hand, taking into account the absorption capacity of EU and a certain ‘enlargement fatigue’, it can be concluded that “the EU is not prepared to extend membership further east. However, the EU can help them to stay focused on its reform process by strengthening EaP program, which is designed to expand ties with the EU’s eastern neighbors in a variety of ways. The EU should also eventually give them the same kind of privileged access to the EU that Switzerland” enjoys.

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