Brussels, 25/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - Five weeks before the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius on 28-29 November, what happens after the summit is already being discussed - including the issue about the countries' accession. “It is very important to remember that the summit in Vilnius will complete a certain political and logical circle and will pave the way to a new circle”, said Lithuania's Foreign Affairs Minister Andrius Krivas, admitting that he has more questions than answers with regard to what happens after Vilnius. “To say that Vilnius is a point of no return sounds nice and that's good, but the real point of no return is when what is decided begins to be implemented”, he said, adding that the agreements will have to be “fully operational” for the next summit - which will take place in Riga in 2015. “The implementation of the agreements is the key”, said Richard Tibbels, head of the European External Action Service, adding that that signature of the agreements initialled in Vilnius could take place in 2014.
However, questions are also being asked about the hopes of these countries to become members of the EU, and some of them believe that these agreements are a start to integration. “The Eastern Partnership does not focus on accession but 50% of the partners see it as a step towards accession”, Krivas said. “How should the association agreement be transformed into the integration process?” asked Laurynas Kasciunnas, head of the research and political analysis division of the Eastern Europe Studies Center. He said that the EU should not only say that the door to becoming EU members remains open but should also “clearly articulate” that, according to these internal reforms and the direction these countries have taken in their development, the EU is ready to begin the process of negotiating on accession.
In Kasciunnas's view, the association agreement leads to the process of integration - “it's not the end but the start of a new history”. And the association process should be dealt with as a step towards integration, he said.
Nevertheless, several member states are not in favour of a possible reference to accession and therefore refuse reference to Article 49 of the Treaties which highlights that any European state can request accession, in the final statement of the Vilnius summit. The statements for the summits in Prague in 2009 and in Warsaw in 2011 make no such. However, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle has already made reference to a possible request for accession by Moldova in the future. (CG/transl.fl)