Union for the Mediterranean and Eastern Partnership. Geopolitical interests or complementary concepts? (original) (raw)

Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: vision vs. reality

The Mediterranean, therefore, has always been an area of natural interest of European countries, especially southern states, and vice versa. If we understand regionalism to mean a systematic approach used to influence one’s position on the international scene the Mediterranean became the historically first target of regionalism in practice and the region still retains a position of priority for all countries concern for a variety of reasons. Within the system of international relations, the Mediterranean represents a geopolitical as well as geoeconomic entity with typical characteristics of economic, political, cultural and religious nature. The strategic importance of the Mediterranean affects security issues and mutual coexistence, questions of natural resources, disproportionate

The Eastern Partnership, the Union for the Mediterranean and the Remaining Need to Do Something with the ENP

CRCEES Working Papers No. 3 (University of Glasgow), 2009, 38pp., 2009

The questionable practice of conditionality used outside of its initial pre-accession context, the grouping together of countries which have little or nothing in common, and the lack of real incentives for the European Union’s neighbourhood partners, as well as a reliance on a range of ‘phantom’ common values, together suggest that the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is falling short of the ambitious goals originally set for it. This paper summarises the main drawbacks of the ENP and then proceeds to an analysis of the ability of the newly introduced ‘Eastern Partnership’ and the ‘Union for the Mediterranean’ initiatives to remedy the key deficiencies of the policy. The conclusions are discomforting: instead of targeting the main drawbacks of the policy, new layers are built on the ENP’s questionable core, increasing the complexity of the EU’s relations with its neighbourhood and sending a signal that, all the pro-active rhetoric notwithstanding, the Union is not ready to be wholeheartedly engaged with the ENP partners.

The European Union and its Neighbourhood: Time for a Rethink

On 7 May 2009 leading policy-makers from the European Union (EU) are scheduled to hold a high-level meeting with political leaders from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine (see map on p. 2) in order to launch a new Eastern Partnership (EaP). It is high time for EU policy-makers to renew and to reinvigorate the relationships with these east European neighbours, as indeed with the southern neighbours (the subject of a parallel initiative to develop the Union for the Mediterranean). The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) had run its course in its previous format. The EU (further) enlargement policy is running up against problems. However, the content of the EaP has so far been sketched only in outline. It has been launched at what has turned out to be a difficult moment, given the political turmoil inside some of the target countries. Much more thought -and imagination  needs to be given to how to reshape these relationships and to which tools are needed for the job. In particular: