Year 2015, six years after launching the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP) policy in
2009, can be characterised as yet another crucial year in the implementation of that
policy.
In May 2015, the Riga Eastern Partnership Summit—EaP Survival Summit, as it
was also sometimes called—took place, which was to take stock of the EaP
initiative in the context of tremendously changed post-2013 security political
environment. Also, a broader European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) review was
launched in March 2015. As the High Representative of the European Union for the
Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini underlined while introducing
the ENP review: The EU has a vital interest in building strong partnerships with
its neighbours. Recent developments in the region have increased the challenges we
all face: from economic pressures to irregular migration and security threats. We
need a strong policy to be able to tackle these issues. We also need to understand
better the different aspirations, values and interests of our partners. This is what the
review is about if we are to have a robust political relationship between our
neighbours and us.
Reaching these objectives is without any doubt a very difficult task. And there
are many reasons to believe that the outcome of the review will be, to a large extent,
influenced by the crisis in Ukraine and deteriorating situation in the South. Before
2013, the entire ENP policy was very much based on the philosophy of enlargement,
which used the assumption of EU’s irresistibility and attractiveness. Along
with changed environment, the latter has been pushed back by the new concerns for
security and stability in the neighbourhood. Based on those considerations, fundamental
questions have been asked in the ENP review document about the further
level and instruments of cooperation.