Warsaw, 30/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - During the second summit on the Eastern Partnership, held on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 September in Warsaw, focus was on Europe's eastern neighbourhood. Adam Eberhardt, Director for the Polish Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), who was regularly consulted by the Polish Presidency of the EU Council, said the Partnership has two main objectives. Firstly, member states and partner states must seek to combat what he calls “mutual fatigue” - Europe is tired of its neighbours and its neighbours are tired of the way the accession process is unfolding, he explained. Secondly, he said, there must be a “balance in Union neighbourhood policy”.
Neighbourhood policy has been put to the test with the case of Yulia Timoshenko in Ukraine, and the dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenko, in Belarus. Eberhardt went on to point out: “We must not hope for any real change in Belarus, as there is no real alternative to the power in place - Belarus' civil society is passive and Lukashenko has dissolved the opposition”. Eberhardt added: “If we begin to play a geopolitical game between Belarus and Russia, the EU could lose both. For Lukashenko, Russia will be of greater interest”.
The first president of Belarus, Stanislav Shushkievich, who opposes the regime in power, considers talks with Lukashenko have already gone too far. Addressing the press, he said: “The EU is preparing for more democracy in Belarus but, at the same time and within the framework of the Eastern Partnership, it is also negotiating with Lukashenko”.
After Ukraine, the Polish Presidency of the EU Council hopes to sign free trade agreements with Georgia and Moldova. Some say Moldova is not ready but, Adam Eberhardt feels it is. “One of the main problems is still the conflict in Transnistria where borders are not controlled”, he asserted, while raising yet another problem - that of visas. “Discussions are being held on a visa-free regime with Russia. But this can't be granted to either Russia or Moldova due to the conflict in Transnistria”, he said. (VW/transl.jl)