The EU’s Eastern Partnership

The European Union and its Eastern Partnership neighbours held their fifth summit in Brussels on 24 November 2017, to take stock of the eight-year-old cooperation programme and map ways to strengthen political and economic ties.

The Eastern Partnership was a regional programme of the European Neighbourhood Policy, aimed at promoting closer cooperation between the European Union, its Member States, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It had achieved progress, such as association agreements and visa-free regimes with Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine, albeit limited by the conflicts and political instability in the region.

The programme signalled the EU’s willingness to reinforce ties with the region, offering incentives to governments and civil society to push ahead with democratic and economic reforms.

This EPRS note offered links to recent commentaries and reports by major international think tanks on the Eastern Partnership and the countries it embraced. More reports on the topic could be found in a previous edition of 'What Think Tanks are Thinking' published in November 2016.

Compiler: Marcin Grajewski

Chatham House: Expert Comment, 21.11.17: Abandoning the Eastern Partnership Would Be a Terrible Act of Self-Harm for Poland https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/abandoning-eastern-partnership-would-be-terrible-act-self-harm-poland

Chatham House: Expert Comment, 23.11.17: EU Should Seek Further Reforms Before Offering Membership to Eastern Neighbours https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/eu-should-seek-further-reforms-offering-membership-eastern-neighbours

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