The Impact of the European Debt Crisis on the Partnership with Central Asia

Central Asia might be a collateral victim of the European financial crisis. The internal European political crisis, further spurred by the financial crisis, had impaired Europe's rise to power on the Central Asian scene. Austerity policies would drastically reduce the funding strategies of the individual European member states. However, the impact of the European crisis was making itself most clearly felt in Central Asia on the political level. The crisis had reinforced local elites' skepticism toward the European model, reducing Europe's legitimacy to promote rule of law and good governance, therefore decreasing its soft power.