The Eastern Partnership: Towards a New Era of Cooperation between the EU and its Eastern Neighbours?

This paper presents the revised version of an overview paper which was distributed earlier this year to introduce the issues on the agenda of the EU policy seminar The Eastern Partnership: Towards a New Era of Cooperation between the EU and its Eastern Neighbours?.

This seminar, which took place at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ on 20-21 April 2009, was organised jointly by the Clingendael Institute and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This seminar on the initiative for an Eastern Partnership (EaP) was the sixth in a series of seminars during which issues that are high on the EU agenda are discussed. It was in particular a follow- up to the seminar on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which was held on 10-11 April 2008 and during which the prospects for elaborating this policy were discussed.