"EASTERN PARTNERSHIP" AT A REASONABLE PRICE
RIA Novosti
17:49 | 08/ 12/ 2008
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) – Brussels
has offered its eastern neighbors, or Russia’s western neighbors, a
chance to establish new relations. The new Eastern Partnership (EaP)
program, whose final draft has been distributed to European capitals,
is to be adopted (no doubt, it will be adopted) at the forthcoming
EU summit in Brussels on December 11-12.
The new "belt of EU friends" at Russia’s eastern and southern borders
would include Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and
Belarus.
The new partnership is expressed with a strange pseudo-math
formula "27+5(6)," where the sixth member is Belarus, or rather
its President Alexander Lukashenko. Brussels is prepared to develop
only "conditionally" friendly ties with that country – until Minsk
demonstrates true eagerness to accept western democratic values.
Brussels makes no secret of the fact that it is the developments
in the Caucasus and Mikheil Saakashvili’s actions that fostered the
drafting of the program. His unpredictability rendered the European
Neighborhood Policy, which the EU has pursued since 2004, archaic. It
is going to be replaced with the Eastern Partnership (EaP).
In political terms, the program’s emergence indicates that NATO and
the EU will coordinate their political lines. After the alliance
refused to give Ukraine and Georgia the Membership Action Plan at its
latest ministerial meeting, it was necessary to somehow encourage
Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili; hence the acceleration
of the Eastern Partnership, which Poland and Sweden pushed for most
vigorously.
However, the EU decided against a commitment to give Poland, Georgia,
Moldova and the others access to Greater Europe. They were only
promised Association Agreements; no pledges were made to admit those
states to the EU.
In fact, the program points to two simple facts: a) Europe has lost
its "transit patience" – it is sick and tired of Kiev’s constant
machinations with the gas supplied to Europe through Ukraine, which
is actually gas larceny, and b) it wishes to finally ensure the
diversification of gas supplies.
The first EaP summit has been planned for April. Almost simultaneously,
Brussels is going to convene a sort of conference to raise investments
to modernize the entire Ukrainian gas pipeline system. In addition,
Brussels intends to offer Ukraine and Moldova full membership in the
European Energy Community. So far, along with Georgia, they have only
observer status.
The European Energy Community was established by the Athens Energy
Community Treaty of 2005. It brought together the EU, Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and
now Kosovo. The treaty regulates the energy (electricity, gas, oil)
trade and transit system in the listed countries. Full membership in
the European Energy Community will impose strict transit obligations
on Ukraine.
Brussels also intends to sign a memorandum of understanding
with Azerbaijan and Armenia. After the Caucasian war, Brussels’
eagerness to develop relations, as a German diplomat put it, with
"serious people in the Caucasus (Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev)
instead of revolutionary romantics (Mikheil Saakashvili), has only
become stronger." It should be noted that Azerbaijan is considered
an alternative gas supply source for Europe.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not
necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.