The Eastern Partnership's growing pains

Map showing Eastern Partnership countries (in orange).

The Partnership is an EU project controlled by the Commission that aims to develop trade and improve political relations between the 27 member states and six ex-Soviet countries – Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. It was inaugurated in the Czech capital of Prague in May 2009.

The initiative’s agenda is aimed primarily at bringing the countries closer to the West, provide an alternative to Moscow’s influence, and was initially championed by both Poland and Sweden on the EU stage.

While the Eastern Partnership has grand plans in bringing Europe closer to countries in the bloc’s so-called ‘Eastern Dimension’, some say the programme has yet to reach the desired effect.

Slow start…

Awareness of the programme is still lacking in countries such as Georgia, while in Ukraine, there are complaints that the EU is lacking drive to help the Eastern Partnership get off the ground.

Representatives from – or working in – the associate countries of the Partnership are quick to criticise the initiative, shoving most of the blame on the European Commission.

Complaints that the Commission is not pulling its weight are voiced by Borys Tarasyuk, formerly Ukraine’s foreign minister and current head of the People’s Movement of Ukraine party.

“The instruments of the Eastern Partnership do not work, [and] the financing is inadequate,” Tarasyuk says, adding that “after two years, the Eastern Partnership is still a conceptual programme which is on paper [only].”

While Tarasyuk does not singularly blame Poland for his dismay as to the initiative, the Foreign Ministry’s Plenipotentiary for the Eastern Partnership, Andrzej Cieszkowski acknowledges that the EU “is still starting” with the programme, adding that opinion on the initiative is “positive”, but the “procedures in the European Commission that implement the project’s initiatives should be faster.”

Raising awareness

Non-governmental organisations are also having a hard time getting a response from ex-Soviet societies to engage with the Eastern Partnership, with funding remaining a problem.

While the European Commission fast becomes an easy target for the dissatisfied, Alex Oprunenco, head of the Expert Grup think-tank based in Moldova’s capital, Chisinau, believes that emphasis needs to be placed on raising social awareness.

“The progress is not as robust as expected, both by the EU and society in Moldova,” Oprunenco states, lamenting the fact that the programme’s “funding [is] not focused, [and] when it was critical it did not come,” commenting on the country’s need to upgrade its energy and transport infrastructure.

Further east in the Caucasus, Iris Kempe from the Böll Foundation’s office in Tbilisi, Georgia, believes that the Eastern Partnership is “not attractive enough” and should “offer more” for civil society.

However, Kempe concedes that “there is a positive tendency” in social awareness as to the Eastern Partnership.

Andrzej Cieszkowski wants NGOs to be more active and create what he calls “a civil society facility” in order to raise awareness in Eastern Partnership countries.

Pinning hopes on Poland’s EU Council presidency

The Eastern Partnership has been billed of one of Poland’s priorities for its EU Council presidency beginning on 1 July.

While Poland is expected to go about the everyday business of running the bloc’s affairs, shadows have been cast as to the real impetus Warsaw might have when it comes to promoting the initiative.

Storm clouds gathering over North Africa may have called a rain check on the Eastern Partnership, and while the EU struggles to come up with a solid foreign policy for countries directly to the bloc’s south, the Eastern Partnership may fall down the agenda.

But an Eastern Partnership summit in the autumn may lighten the burden of discontent among some of the initiative’s members.

During the summit, the first meeting of the Euronest parliamentary assembly of EU and Eastern Partnership representatives will take place. In the opinion of Borys Tarasyuk, the meeting will provide a platform to push those who are lagging behind in backing for the programme.

Furthermore, Tarasyuk expects that “Poland will pay more attention than other countries” to the Eastern Partnership.

Will Poland be able to hoist the Eastern Partnership back onto the EU agenda with success? With Europe’s finances in turmoil, just how much money can be thrown at this project? Autumn’s summit may well clarify some of these issues, but for now its teething problems continue. (jb)