Eastern Partnership policy beyond 2020: advances and omissions in a vast agenda. CEPS Commentary 14 April 2020

Emerson, Michael and Blockmans, Steven and Cenusa, Denis and Kovziridze, Tamara and Movchan, Veronika (2020) Eastern Partnership policy beyond 2020: advances and omissions in a vast agenda. CEPS Commentary 14 April 2020. [Policy Paper]

PDF - Published Version Download (435Kb)

Abstract

The Joint Communication on the Eastern Partnership (EaP)1 published in March offers a broad array of policy orientations but relatively little operational specificity. This drafting is presumably intended to be acceptable to all six EaP states. The lack of reference to the joint request of the three states with Association Agreements (AAs) – Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – to open a ‘quadrilogue’ with the EU to treat matters of common concern to them, and which are not relevant or plausible in relation to the other EaP states, is a glaring omission that could still be corrected at the EaP summit on 18 June. This summit should also agree on EaP policy beyond 2020, with the partner states, and include the many transnational issues worthy of quadrilateral consultations, such as how revisions of major EU policies (for instance, on energy, climate and competition) may affect the associated states.

Actions (login required)