Despite announcing a “strong commitment” to Eastern partners, the EU’s reluctance to achieve rapid integration for its most ambitious neighbors has caused increasing frustration as the senior diplomat announced on Monday ( November 15) met in Brussels to plan the future of policy.
Prior to the leader’s EaP summit scheduled for December 15, the EU’s senior diplomats and foreign ministers met with counterparts in the Eastern Partnership (EaP), as well as the EU’s counterparts in its eastern neighbors Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. policy.
The meeting was designed to lay the foundation for the political approval of the future goals of the policy next month. It should have demonstrated the EU’s “firm commitment to the Eastern Partnership”, as a senior EU official said before the ministerial meeting.
When asked by reporters whether the policy is dying, Joseph Borrell, a senior EU diplomat, rejected this statement and said that Brussels is “increasingly concerned about our eastern neighbors.”
“For us, it was mainly the most important part of our foreign policy at the time,” the Spaniard added.
Draft statement is missing
The December summit will be the first physical meeting between EU and EaP leaders since the outbreak of the pandemic, and the first official summit between the EU and its eastern neighbors since 2017.
However, EURACTIV understands that the preparation of the EU-EaP Joint Declaration is being carried out in the wrong way.
After 2019, the formulation of a joint political declaration is particularly politically sensitive attempt Failed in generating positions signed by all participating countries. The document celebrating the 10th anniversary of the policy was downgraded to a presidential statement signed only by Federica Mogherini, the highest diplomat of the European Union at the time.
Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said in a meeting with his colleagues in Brussels on Monday that it is very important to adopt a “very specific, forward-looking and forward-looking joint statement” within a month.
Orescu also emphasized the importance of “discussing this joint statement as soon as possible.”
An Eastern Partnership diplomat expressed frustration that no draft conclusions have been distributed so far.
They regret that “this means that there will be no discussion and we will be forced to accept the written comments of the European Union.”
Three people lose patience
Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, three countries wishing to join the European Union, have recently joined forces to accelerate their integration into the European Union.
So far, after the three countries that have deepened trade and political relations with the EU signed an alliance agreement, this self-proclaimed “joint trio” initiative has received little support from the European Commission. only It wasn’t until last summer that the word was spoken publicly.
This anxiety was reflected in Borrell’s answer to reporters’ questions about the trio in the Eastern Partnership before the meeting. “We will discuss with them,” he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said when he arrived at the European Council building on Monday that one of Kiev’s main expectations for the Eastern Partnership Summit was “recognition of the relevant trio.”
The trio is in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) with Old enemy Armenia and the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, neither of these two countries intend to join the group. Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union and has a defense agreement with Russia, while Azerbaijan, with decisive support from Turkey, won the Karabakh War last year.
Radoslaw Darski, deputy director of the European Union’s External Services EEAS Eastern Partnership Regional Office, said: “We are concerned about certain political developments and the lack of sufficient reform progress.”
In a speech Online activities Before Monday’s ministerial meeting, Dalski added, “We cannot pretend that we have not seen that” the EU and EaP countries “have different visions for the future of this partnership and their participation in this endeavour.”
“We welcome the three-person initiative…but at the same time, we will always reiterate that maintaining inclusiveness is equally important to ensuring the success of the partnership,” he added.
Support from the East
New member states of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic States More open To trio format.
Before Monday’s meeting, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis stated that Lithuania considers the trio to be “a good way for countries to accelerate the process of European integration”.
“But then again, I think it’s just the format, because we have seen some differences in the format, which also requires attention,” he added.
French column
EURACTIV understands that France, which has an influential Armenian diaspora, is not interested in the Associated Trio format because it wants to make Armenia as close as other countries.
France will hold presidential elections from April to May 2022. The French government is careful not to provide material for the far-right attack on Emmanuel Macron as a promoter of further enlargement of the European Union.
United Nations estimate France has a population of 250,000 Armenia, but other Put this number as high as 400,000, second only to Russia outside the Caucasus, 1.9 million and 850,000 in the United States, respectively.
A diplomat in the region confirmed that Paris is unlikely to support any fast-track ideas for the trio, precisely because of the sentiments of the Armenian diaspora.
With France as the six-month rotating presidency of the Security Council, the issue of the “cold shoulder” blockade in Paris has become particularly acute. The diplomat said that Paris pays little attention to EaP in general and expressed doubts that the policy will change after the French election.
