Eastern partnership approved

EU leaders give their backing to scheme to deepen the EU's relations with six eastern neighbours, including Ukraine and Belarus.

European Union heads of state and government have approved a scheme to tie the EU's neighbours to the east – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – closer to the Union.

The scheme, which is known as the eastern partnership and is due to be launched on 7 May, will form an integral part of the EU's existing neighbourhood policy.

Karel Schwarzenberg, the Czech foreign minister and chair of the EU's foreign ministers' meetings, said that the decision meant that "great dream has been achieved".

The EU's leaders agreed to set aside ?600 million for the scheme.

There had initially been concerns about financing a proliferation of new EU forums and schemes. The eastern partnership was first proposed by the Swedish and Polish governments last year, partly in response to the French-backed Union for the Mediterranean, which also falls under the neighbourhood policy.

The European Commission set out its plans for the scheme in a proposal last December. That has since then discussed and adjusted by EU member states, led by the Czech Republic, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency.

Ukraine lukewarm

The partnership holds out the promise of “political association and further economic integration between the European Union and its eastern partners,” language that reflects the EU's determination not to encourage these countries to seek full membership. While the partnership offers a tangible upgrade of existing links in the case of countries like Armenia, others – above all Ukraine – see little added value in the scheme because they see it as a distraction from ongoing association talks and their ultimate goal of gaining membership of the EU.

Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's president, told European Voice in an interview on 19 March that he “welcomed” the partnership, but he also stressed that he saw bilateral negotiations as the proper venue for deepening relations. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former foreign minister of Ukraine and likely liberal candidate in presidential elections next year, told reporters today that the eastern partnership was “very important for the EU”, suggesting that it was of far less consequence for his country.

Tricky partners

The partnership offer comes just two days after a referendum in Azerbaijan to scrap presidential term limits (18 March). According to preliminary figures from the election commission, more than 90% of voters approved the measure, paving the way for President Ilham Aliev – who succeeded his father, Heydar Aliev, in 2003 – to be president for life.

The inclusion of Belarus – Europe's most authoritarian regime – raises the possibility of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, often dubbed ‘Europe's last dictator', attending a summit with EU leaders. A spokesperson for the Czech presidency said that it had not yet been decided who would be invited and that the Czech government would follow earlier decisions by the EU on travel restrictions on members of the Belarusian regime. Earlier this week, EU foreign ministers had extended the suspension of visa bans on senior representatives of the Belarusian government by another nine months, following an initial six-month suspension.

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