Warsaw, 28/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Eastern Partnership summit takes place in Warsaw on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 September and the future of relations between the 27 members of the EU and the six partner states to the east will be at the heart of discussions. The summit will bring together delegations from member states and from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and, possibly, Belarus. The meeting is being jointly organised by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Commission President José Manuel Barroso and EU High Representative Catherine Ashton, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The discussions around the six partner states will not be similar in nature. The EU does not propose that all these countries will be dealt with in the same way. Led by Poland - along with Sweden, the driving force behind the Partnership in 2009 - the EU is expected to conclude negotiations on an agreement with Ukraine. The enhanced, comprehensive free-trade agreement with Ukraine faces many uncertainties. “The economic chapter has been completed, we now have to work on political cooperation. The issue of human rights is still on the table”, admitted Polish Under-Secretary of State for European Affairs Jerzy Pomianowski. In mid-September, Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner Štefan Füle made conclusion of this agreement conditional on the release of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The announcement on Tuesday that the Ukrainian prosecution is calling for her to be sentenced to seven years in prison will seriously complicate talks.
The Polish Presidency is calling for talks on similar agreements to be opened with Georgia and Moldova. “We want to open up the existing scheme to other states, not create a new one”, said Polish Foreign Minister Rados³aw Sikorski. While improvements in the political and economic situation in Georgia are encouraging to the EU, things would appear to be more complicated with Moldova. According to Adam Eberhardt, head of the Centre for Oriental Studies, who is regularly consulted by the Polish Presidency on the Eastern Partnership: “Moldova is not ready for agreements of this sort. The conflict in Transnistria has isolated it. It first of all has to control all its borders”. Tacit approval of this view was provided by Sikorski when he said that “the issue of Transnistria will not be settled at his summit”.
The other thorny matter in the Eastern Partnership is Belarus. With Alexander Lukashenko, the country's president, persona non grata in Europe, Belarus is likely to be represented by its Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov. “We admit that the Partnership is not working in the case of Belarus. We have to find new ways of exerting pressure”, said Pomianowski, who is in charge of the Eastern Partnership. The EU has
already called on the Belarusian president to release all political prisoners. “The transformation and modernisation of the post-Soviet countries is of the highest importance to Poland. It is important for the EU, too, to have a prosperous neighbourhood”, added Andrzej Ciezkowski, adviser to the Polish foreign minister.
At the Gymnich meeting in Sopot at the start of September, Poland said that it had great ambitions for the Warsaw summit, including enlargement of the EU to partner countries - much to the chagrin of Germany and France which claimed that “a Europe in crisis cannot bear further enlargement”. On the eve of the Eastern Partnership summit, Poland has changed its tune somewhat. Sikorski said: “The Partnership is there to organise a common area. To allow partner states to be a bit more like European states. Enlargement of the EU to include these states is possible, but not at the moment.” Other members of the foreign ministry repeated these comments. “We are not saying 'no' to enlargement but we are not saying 'yes' either. Europe is in crisis, it is not on the programme”, stated Pomianowski.
Ever hopeful, Poland still wants to afford its neighbours the chance to have a constructive partnership with the EU, a European dialogue which has already shown its worth and could improve the futures of the partner countries: “Poland is a good example of what this kind of partnership with the EU can bring. Thirty years ago we were thought of as the East. Today, we have moved geographically”, Sikorski mused.
The EU is concerned by the way the Tymoshenko trial is unfolding. Maja Kocijancic, Catherine Ashton's spokeswoman, called for “compliance with the rule of law” and also for “respect for a fair trial”. “We want to avoid legal measures being used in a discriminatory way. We will call for the fullest transparency in the investigation”, she added. (VW/transl.rt)