Euroeast

Eastern Partnership

 

The Eastern Partnership (EaP) completes the EU’s foreign policy towards Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus countries as a specific Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). Launched in May 2009 at the Prague Summit, the EaP fosters the necessary conditions to accelerate political association and further economic integration between the European Union and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
 
The EaP Foreign Ministers emphasized at their meeting in December 2010the strategic importance of the Partnership as a way to deepen and strengthen relations between the EU and the partner countries, to speed up their political association, economic integration and approximation towards the EU and to support their modernization efforts.
 
The Partnership foresees stronger political engagement with the EU, namely:
  • the prospect of a new generation of Association Agreements;
  • integration into the EU economy with deep free trade agreements;
  • easier travel to the EU through gradual visa liberalisation, accompanied by measures to tackle illegal immigration;
  • enhanced energy security arrangements;
  • increased financial assistance;
  • deeper cooperation on environment and climate issues;
  • increased people-to-people contacts and greater involvement of civil society.
 
Since its launch in 2009, the Eastern Partnership has gone a long way in shaping the agenda of cooperation between the EU and its eastern neighbours and providing a solid framework for sharing expertise and best practices. The initiative has given rise to new platforms for dialogue at the government and expert level (thematic platforms), as well as in the fields of parliamentary and participatory democracy (Euronest; Civil Society Forum and the Conference of the Regional and Local Authorities - COLREAP).
 
How it works
The EaP objectives are achieved through the bilateral track, which aims to deepen the relations between the EU and each partner country through the conclusion of bilateral agreements such as the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area, and the multilateral track, which advances the EaP objectives through the four policy (thematic) platforms, namely:
  • democracy, good governance and stability
  • economic integration and convergence with EU sectoral policies
  • energy security
  • contacts between people
 
There are also a number of flagship initiatives, which give additional momentum and more visibility to the Partnership, while seeking to mobilise multi-donor support from different International Financial Institutions and investment from the private sector. These are:

Funds to back the Partnership
The EaP funds, totalling €600 million made available to Eastern Partnership countries over the period 2010-13 (€85 million in 2010, €110 million in 2011, €175 million in 2012 and € 230 in 2013), aim to support three main areas:
  • Comprehensive Institution Building programmes to assist reforms (about €175 million);
  • Pilot regional development programmes to address regional economic and social disparities (about €75
  • million);Implementation of the EaP, focusing on democracy, governance and stability, economic integration and
  • convergence with EU policies, energy security, and contacts between people with the aim of bringing thepartners closer to the EU (about €350 million).
The EaP allocation constitutes about a quarter of the total funding the EU is providing to the partner countries in 2010-2013
 
Eastern Partnership glossary (Azeri,  Armenian,  Georgian,  Moldavian,  Ukrainian versions)