Brussels, 09/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - The future partnership that the European Union plans to develop with Central Asia will be based on the notion of complementarity between the regional dimension and the five bilateral approaches. Presenting the broad lines of the EU's future strategy, to be adopted by the European Council during its meeting on 21-22 June, to the European Parliament's committee on foreign affairs on Tuesday 8 May, Pierre Morel, EU special representative for Central Asia appointed to the region five months ago, also spoke of recent developments in the region. He stressed that the strategy should allow greater consistency to be given to action that is currently too thinly scattered. This “dispersion” must be replaced by a long-term “constructive approach”, he said, explaining that cooperation should include initiatives on education, rule of law, dialogue on human rights, support for development and the market economy, dialogue on energy and the fight against organised crime.
European interest in Central Asia has been increasing since 2005. According to Pierre Morel, “it is real diversity of the European offer that could act as the real lever” for cooperation with the five states of this region: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. He stressed the need to adopt a “regional and differentiated” approach whereby it would be possible to adjust cooperation intensity to the achievements of each country. In this context, 70-75% of available resources will be devoted to specific national actions and the remaining 25-30% will be used for regional actions, explained the special representative, pointing out that the financial allocation earmarked for Central Asia for the period 2007-2013 has now doubled compared to the previous financial period.
In response to MEPs, Mr Morel denied that the “EU might leave human rights to one side as energy is more important”. He said that stability in the region was a priority for the Union. “Energy will not be accessible in an unstable zone”, he commented, stressing the need to invest more in the region. “Investment is needed in infrastructure and in institutional reform”, as well as in the “new generations” mainly through the university exchanges that are already taking place.
In answer to questions raised by Austrian Socialist Hannes Swoboda on relations in the Black Sea region, and the future pipeline project known as the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, Morel pointed out that the EU has begun a feasibility study on the latter but that, in reality, Transneft, the Russian operator, remains the only gas and oil transport infrastructure provider. Speaking on Kazakhstan, Morel recalled that Kazakhstan is in a transition phase and that it has huge potential, mainly because it is at the heart of two projects: Arangarsk (the Russian uranium extraction, enrichment and processing project) and that of the “electric motorways” (a project backed by the United States, Russia and the countries of the region) which consists of a network of electrical connections from Kazakhstan to Kabul (Afghanistan) and to Peshawar (Pakistan). (aby)