Tuesday

21st Mar 2023

Ex-Soviet states accept limited EU perspective

  • Tusk: 'The Eastern Partnership is not a beauty contest between Russia and the European Union'

EU leaders will keep alive their Eastern Partnership with six ex-Soviet states, while limiting their partners’ hopes of EU membership.

The Eastern Partnership summit in Riga, which started with an informal dinner on Thursday (21 May), focuses on the "European aspirations" of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Russia is the elephant in the room.
 (Photo: kremlin.ru)

These three countries, whose relations with the EU are already deeper than those of Armenia, Berlarus, and Azerbaijan, the partnership’s three other countries, pressed the EU to promise them future EU membership.

Ukraine and Georgia also expected the EU to grant them a visa free regime next year.

But the EU, wary of further enlargement and careful not to antagonise Russia, made clear it would not rush on either issue.

"The Eastern Partnership is not an instrument for enlargement of the European union, but it is an instrument of rapprochement with the European Union," German chancellor Angela Merkel said when she arrived in Riga.

Leaders discussed the subject at the dinner so that there should be no heated debate at Friday’s formal meeting.

"EU leaders, especially from the big countries, made clear this [enlargement] is not a question for now but that we do not exclude anything," an EU official told EUobserver.

"We are not against it but it is not the right time".

The dinner went through in a relaxed atmosphere, the official said, with Georgia’s prime minister Irakli Garibashvili talking "passionately" about his country’s "standing for European values and wanting to get something in return".

The summit declaration is to say that participants "acknowledge the European aspirations and European choice of the partners concerned", with no mention of future membership perspectives.

The draft document also "warmly welcome[s] the progress made by Georgia and Ukraine" in the implementation of measures demanded by the EU to fight trans-border trafficking and corruption.

Ukraine and Georgia will now wait for a European Commission report in autumn. If the report states that they are ready for a visa-free regime, the EU's green light could come quickly, the official said.

With Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia as well as Russian pressure on neighbouring countries, the Kremlin is the elephant in the room in Riga.


"Russia was mentioned a lot" at the dinner, the EU official told EUobserver,

EU leaders repeated on Thursday that the Eastern Partnership is not directed against Russia, but also underlined that Russia should not interfere with its neighbours’ foreign policy.

"The Eastern Partnership is not a beauty contest between Russia and the European Union," said Donald Tusk, the president of the EU Council, before Thursday's dinner.

"But, let me be frank, beauty does count. If Russia was a bit softer, more charming, more attractive, perhaps it wouldn't have to compensate its shortcomings by its destructive and aggressive bullying tactics."

EU reaches out to former Soviet states

EU countries have acknowledged Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova's EU aspirations but stopped short of giving a clear enlargement perspective.

Eastern Partnership: In search of meaning

Twenty-five EU leaders and six former Soviet states are meeting in the shadow of the Ukraine crisis and amid divergent views on future relations.

EU keeps former Soviet countries at arm's length

The EU kept former Soviet states at arm's length in the Riga summit, held in the shadow of Russia's aggression in Ukraine. Greece and the UK referendum gatecrashed the event.

Analysis

Ex-Soviet states need more EU clarity

Sooner or later, the EU must give a clear answer on enlargement to Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, the EU foreign service's former top official, Pierre Vimont, says.

Latest News

  1. EU fears Tunisia turmoil will spark migrant boat departures
  2. 'Symbolic' Putin indictment gets some EU backing
  3. 'Final warning' to act on climate change, warns IPCC
  4. 'No one is unemployable': the French social experiment
  5. Why can't we stop marches glorifying Nazism on EU streets?
  6. Op-ed debate: Should NGOs be subject to stricter transparency regulation?
  7. 'Forever chemicals' industry hit by perfect storm
  8. EU summit zooms in on global roles This WEEK

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality
  5. Promote UkraineInvitation to the National Demonstration in solidarity with Ukraine on 25.02.2023
  6. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us