Angelina Eichhorst, Acting Director General of the European External Action Service, said on Tuesday 21 January that more political commitment was needed in the Eastern Partnership.
This partnership with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2019 and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is expected to present a proposal for the post-2020 Partnership at the end of March.
“It is important to understand that the world is changing rapidly and that we need to look at things through a new prism”, said Ms Eichhorst in a debate in the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. She considered that “there should be even greater diplomatic engagement”, adding that the Eastern Partnership would be one of the priorities of the von der Leyen Commission.
The Partnership should, once again, emphasise both a regional and a bilateral dimension, with the possibility of differentiating between the different partner countries according to their progress and their willingness to move closer to the EU or not. “From a practical point of view, for us there is no conflict. You can have an inclusive partnership, but at the same time you can really differentiate, this is where you can have a much more focused approach”, said Katarína Mathernová, Deputy Director-General of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations.
The new cooperation should include subjects that are important to the new Commission, such as digital technology and climate. “For the next 10 years, we will have to focus on the theme of resilience, it is a concept that can be useful for everything we want to do”, Ms Mathernová added, citing resilience in terms of biodiversity or energy. She also highlighted the recurring themes of the rule of law and democracy. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)