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Towards a genuine eastern partnership

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  • Towards a genuine eastern partnership

    Towards a genuine eastern partnership
    Editorial

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f608466a-eb73-11e0-9a41-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1ZfDfVwI3
    October 2, 2011 10:33 pm


    For understandable reasons, most European Union governments tend not
    to regard relations with the six former Soviet republics that lie
    between the EU's eastern borders and Russia as their highest economic
    and foreign policy priority. Rather than looking east, the EU has
    spent two years looking inwards, thanks to the debt crisis, or south
    at the Arab spring.

    This inattention was noticeable in Warsaw last week at a summit of the
    Eastern Partnership, which groups the EU's 27 member-states with
    Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Angela
    Merkel, Germany's chancellor, was the only high-level EU leader who
    bothered to attend the event. The UK sent Nick Clegg, deputy prime
    minister.

    Mr Clegg made the right noises by arguing that the EU should offer
    closer integration, up to and including full membership, to any
    Eastern Partnership state that aspires to join the bloc and meets the
    relevant criteria. Holding out the prospect of EU entry generates
    momentum for domestic reform, raises economic standards and increases
    a sense of responsibility on the international stage. From the
    Mediterranean and Nordic region to central Europe, enlargement has
    proved to be a most successful EU foreign policy tool.

    But the plain truth is that the six Eastern Partnership countries
    cannot put all their eggs in the EU's basket, because Russia's
    geographical proximity, military power and economic weight limit their
    options. Moreover, democracy and the rule of law are not sufficiently
    entrenched in most eastern neighbours to justify talk of EU accession
    - a point that was made strongly at the Warsaw summit with the EU's
    condemnation of political repression in Belarus.

    EU membership is a very distant prospect even for those neighbours,
    such as Ukraine, which claim to view it as desirable. The EU should
    therefore focus the Eastern Partnership on practical, deliverable
    goals. It can start by helping its neighbours to develop a strong
    private business culture and regulatory regimes compatible with
    European rules on trade and investment.

    One objective that is within reach is a free trade agreement with
    Ukraine. Some EU governments want to block it because of the trial of
    Yulia Tymoshenko, the opposition leader. Unquestionably, the trial is
    a deplorable example of political intimidation. But if the Kiev
    authorities halt it, as they should, the EU should respond by keeping
    open the prospect of the free trade accord.

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