The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, gave a positive assessment of the first decade of the Eastern Partnership at a conference celebrating the tenth anniversary in Batumi, Georgia.
“It is clear that, through and thanks to the Partnership, our relationships have become deeper, more structured and more predictable”, he said. The EU has association agreements with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, a comprehensive and strengthened partnership agreement with Armenia, is finalising its negotiations for an agreement with Azerbaijan and has “a more transparent engagement with Belarus”.
According to Mr Tusk, “all this has opened up a wide range of new opportunities”, such as strengthening economic ties, encouraging investment and trade, improving transport links and infrastructure, enhancing energy security and efficiency, and working on the harmonisation of digital markets. The EU and the Eastern Partnership countries have agreed on “20 results for 2020”.
Kiev, Tbilisi and Chisinau also benefit from visa liberalisation.
Moreover, according to Mr Tusk, while the Partnership was not designed as a conflict resolution mechanism, “it is a community of values and principles and, as such, it has sought to support stability in the region and your countries’ ability to resist pressure”. Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova have territorial conflicts with Russia or people supported by it, and Azerbaijan and Armenia are fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr Tusk said that the future of the Partnership raised many questions, including about the accession of some partners to the EU. The latest declarations of the Eastern Partnership Summits do not explicitly mention accession. “One thing is clear: we will remain an inclusive initiative to strengthen relations between the EU and the six partners, while providing a differentiated approach according to one's own aspirations and possibilities”, Mr Tusk warned.
A structured consultation process was launched in May on the future of the Partnership. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)