How can the Eastern Partnership's achievements be summed up? Association agreements signed with three of the six partner countries, schemes ranging from visa facilitation to elimination of visa requirements with five of the six partners and relatively poorly funded multilateral cooperation. Does that equate to success or failure? The question that will be hanging this week over the National Library in Riga, seat of the Latvian EU Council Presidency, begs another. What do the Union and its partners expect of…
German shift
The Eastern Partnership has never been a priority for Berlin. "As with the UfM, Germany was not particularly disposed towards a regionalisation of the neighbourhood policy. But since this innovation materialised, it sought to advance its own interests, as usual," commented a French member of a Brussels institution, who preferred to remain anonymous. At the start of the partnership, "Germany only tried to bring in projects with Russia and not to provoke Russia," recalls Meister (DGAP). But with the tougher Russian policy and the war in Ukraine, "this has changed towards a more balanced approach" by Germany towards the partnership. There is nonetheless "no real will to seriously develop the Eastern Partnership," adds the researcher.