1. EU-Russia relations in the wake of the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit

The first lecture aims to achieve several goals:

• explain the concept and principles of the Eastern Partnership policy.
• define the expectations from the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit from the perspective of the EU, EaP countries and Russia.
• identify the results and future consequences of the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit for EU-Russia relations and EaP countries.

To meet the learning objectives students are required to watch the video lecture, read the material and complete the self-test 1.

Vilnius EaP Summit not only led to the start of the Maidan revolution and the Ukraine crisis, but also became the tipping point in EU-Russia relations and highlighted the differences in both actor’s regional policies in the post-Soviet space. 

 

The EU has actively tried to communicate and ‘integrate’ its neighbours into different political and economic platforms over the last decades. One of the most prominent integration tools of EU’s regional policy remains the European Neighbourhood Policy.  In this respect, the Eastern Partnership, which was established in 2009, represents the Eastern dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The context which accelerated the launch of the initiative was the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008 and the need to enhance political association and to deepen economic integration between the EU and its Eastern neighbours. The Eastern Partnership has two tracks: (1) bilateral and (2) multilateral.

 

The bilateral track works to supports political and socio-economic reforms in partner countries to foster political association and further economic integration with the EU; enhance sector cooperation; and support mobility of citizens and visa-free travel as a long-term goal.

 

The multilateral dimension complements bilateral relations with: thematic platforms to exchange best practices on issues of mutual interest such as good governance, economic integration as well as flagship initiatives, which are regional cooperation programmes in the fields of: energy, environment, response to disasters, border management, and support to small businesses.

 

To define the future agenda of the partnership, EaP summits are held every two years and serve as an opportunity for heads of states and governments of all member and partner countries to meet and define the general lines of the EaP policy. Even though, Brussels made it clear that the new initiative is not aimed against Russia, Moscow received the launch of new programme very cautiously. 

 

After two previous summits in Prague and Budapest, the Vilnius Summit supposed to become the demonstration of the first tangible results of EU’s policies towards its Eastern neighbours by signing an Association Agreement with Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova.

 

In the video lecture, we discuss further in more detail about the expectations from the Vilnius EaP Summit as well as its main results.

 

References:

• European Union External Action Service, ‘Eastern Partnership from Prague to Riga’. 

Reading material:

1. The Eastern Partnership – frequently asked questions. European Union External Action.
2. Ben Smith. Research Briefings – Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius: carrots v sticks International affairs and defence section. 
3. Alexander Izotov, Kristi Raik, Alexei Sekarev. The post-Vilnius challenges of the Eastern partnership. Eastern partnership review. December 2013.
4. Tomislava Penkova. The Vilnius summit and Ukraine’s revolution as a benchmark for EU Eastern Partnership policy. OSPI online papers No. 240. March 2014.