5. Riga Eastern Partnership Summit and the future of the EaP policy and EU-Russia relations

The lecture aims to achieve these objectives:

• give a brief overview of the EU’s new leadership (President of the Commission and European Council, High Representative).
• look at the expectations from the Riga Eastern Partnership Summit from the perspective of the EU and EaP countries.
• examine the outcomes of the Eastern Partnership Summit as well as their impact on EU-Russia relations and the future of the EaP policy.

To successfully complete the last self-test, students need to read the compulsory study material and watch the video lecture.

We started our course by analysing EU-Russia relations in the wake of the Vilnius EaP Partnership Summit and now we arrived to the end point of our course which is the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga. In this lecture, we are going to look at some leadership changes in the EU’s Commission and European Council as well as discuss, in a round-table discussion, the main expectations from the Riga EaP summit and its outcomes.

 

Before we turn to the examination of the Easter Partnership Summit in Riga, it is important to look at the leadership changes in the EU’s key institutions, these being the Commission, which is the executive body of the EU; and European Council, which defines the general political direction and priorities of the European Union. Such clarifications could help us later to better understand how the leadership changes in the EU institutions impacted the EaP policy and EU-Russia relations.

 

Let’s start with the changes in the Commission. In 2014, for the first time since the changes in the Lisbon treaty, the European Parliament had to elect the president of the Commission. The new changes required the European Parliament to elect the new Commission president with an absolute majority, instead of merely approving her/him, as the previous Treaty stated. It also meant that the European Council had to put forward the candidate for the Commission President, taking into account European Parliament elections.  Since EPP won the European Parliament elections and Junker campaigned as the candidate of this party, the European Council nominated him for the post. In July 2014, the European Parliament elected Juncker as the new Commission president, whereas in October EP approved and European Council formally appointed the Juncker’s Commission. Junker’s main job is to decide on the organisation of the Commission, allocate portfolios to members of the Commission as well as to determine the Commission’s policy agenda, defending the general European interest. He represents the Commission in European Council meetings; G7 and G20 summits; bilateral summits with third countries; and major debates in the European Parliament and the Council.

 

The election of the President of the European Council, on the contrary, is not impacted by the EP elections.  The European Council elects its President for 2.5 years by qualified majority. The current president of the European Council is Donald Tusk and his main responsibilities are set out under article 15 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU). In particular, the President of the European Council is responsible for: chairing European Council meetings and driving forward its work; helping to facilitate cohesion and consensus within the European Council; as well as insuring the external representation of the EU.

 

Another important role within the EU institutional framework is the post of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who also serves as the Vice-President of the European Commission. The European Council appoints the High Representative through a ‘qualified majority’ vote; whereas the President of the Commission must be in agreement with the decision. The current post of the High Representative is held by Federica Mogherini. Her role is wide-ranging. It involves: steering foreign policy on behalf of the EU; coordinating the EU’s foreign policy tools as the Vice-President of the European Commission; building consensus between the 28 EU countries and their respective priorities; and attending regular meetings between leaders of EU countries in the European Council.

 

The appointment of new president of the Commission, European Council and High Representative – certainly impacted the outlook of EU policies. But the elections of the EU’s new leadership did not turn out without Member States’ disagreements and divisions. 

 

In the video discussion, our experts examine the reasons for such disagreements and the impact of EU’s new leadership on the EaP policy as well as analyse the expectations and results of the Riga EaP summit.

 

References:

• EUROPA – European Union website
• European Union External Action Service website 

Reading materials:

1. EU presidents – who does what? European Union.
2. The post of high representative of the Union for foreign affairs and security policy. European Union external action.
3. Kadri Liik. View from EaP countries. ECFR Riga series.
4. Hrant Kostanyan. The Eastern partnership after Riga: review and reconfirm. CEPS commentary.
5. Olena Khylko. Riga summit: implications for the Eastern partnership. EESRI policy brief.
6. Jana Kobzova. Eastern partnership after Riga: rethink, reforms, resilience. ECFR Riga series