EU Cooperation for a Successful Eastern Partnership
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EU cooperation for a successful Eastern Partnership Development and Cooperation border links. It aims at addressing several challenges I What is the Eastern faced in the neighbourhood, including protracted Partnership? confl icts, poverty and social inequalities. It also provides a framework to address cross-border problems such as “The Eastern Partnership is an EU policy aimed at traffi cking, irregular migration or pollution. bringing our Eastern neighbours closer to the European Union. The instruments of the Eastern Partnership To support the implementation of the Neighbourhood are used to help the participating countries with their Policy and fi nance cooperation programmes with the transformation. The EU’s support for democratic concerned countries, a specifi c fi nancial instrument has and economic reforms in the neighbourhood helps to been established, the European Neighbourhood and strengthen stability and prosperity which brings direct Partnership Instrument (ENPI). benefi ts to the citizens both in these countries and in the EU. This support goes not only to the reform efforts of In this overall framework, the Eastern Partnership the governments but is also designed to increase the role (EaP) was launched in Prague in 2009 as the Eastern of the civil society which has an important part in the dimension of the European Neighbourhood Policy. It transformation.” covers the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Commissioner for Enlargement and European Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, Georgia, Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The Partnership’s main objective is to accelerate political association and further economic integration between the EU and its Eastern Neighbours and for that, to support their political and socio-economic reforms. The Prague summit also agreed to support mobility of citizens and visa liberalisation as a long term goal for 2 individual partner countries, provided that conditions for well-managed and secure mobility are in place. At the second Eastern Partnership Summit held in Warsaw in September 2011, the participants re- affi rmed their commitment to the guiding principles of Following the EU’s enlargement in 2004 and 2007, a the Eastern Partnership. deeper relationship is being built between the EU and the countries on its Eastern and Southern borders through To achieve the ambitious goals of the Eastern Partnership the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The policy two parallel paths are followed: a bilateral one, to seeks to build and consolidate healthy democracies, strengthen the already well established relations with pursue sustainable economic growth and manage cross- each of the partner countries and a multilateral one, to address challenges which are common to all partners. Large assistance programmes have been developed The deepening of the bilateral and multilateral over the last years to support the reform process, relations is supported by comprehensive cooperation democratisation as well as economic and social programmes. With the establishment of the Eastern development. These programmes, which contribute to the Partnership, the already important cooperation deepening of the bilateral relations between the EU and budget for EU Eastern partners has been increased its Eastern partners, are based on the priorities identifi ed by EUR 350 million for the period 2010-2013. This jointly with the partner country in the framework of a brings the fi nancial resources made available for the multiannual “National Indicative Programme”. implementation of the Neighbourhood Policy in the EU’s Eastern partners to about EUR 1.9 billion. In addition, two new initiatives have been launched in the framework of the Eastern Partnership: the Comprehensive Institution Building Programmes to support II The bilateral path partner countries institutional reforms (EUR 173 million over the period 2011-2013) and Pilot Regional Deepening the bilateral relations between the EU and Development Programmes to address regional economic each Eastern partner will be formalised through the and social disparities within the Eastern Partnership negotiation and conclusion of Association Agreements – countries (61 million Euros for 2011-2013). currently the closest contractual tie that exists between the EU and a third country. Given the political situation in the country, Belarus has currently no access to these new initiatives. Gradual economic integration will be formalised, as and when the partner country will be ready, through a 2.1 Bilateral cooperation programmes “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area” (DCFTA), with Eastern partner countries granting it enhanced access to the European market and providing the tools to modernise and maximise the Bilateral cooperation covers a large range of activities benefi ts of that access. which can be broadly grouped under the following 3 Both the Association Agreement and the DCFTA, as an integral part of the Association Agreement, present a strong incentive towards reforms but also a huge challenge for each partner country which has to adopt and fully apply a broad range of EU standards and regulations, including in highly technical fi elds such as transport, environment and taxation. This will necessarily be a long-term endeavour. three main dimensions: good governance; rule of law multifunctional VET Centres. They have been renovated and fundamental freedoms; sustainable economic and and have received relevant equipment in order to social development, trade and investment. strengthen the links between labour market and employment strategies. Furthermore, the directors and Bilateral fi nancial envelopes are signifi cant, amounting teachers of VET colleges were trained in a new teaching up to EUR 596 million for Ukraine, the largest country, and management methodology. Building upon these for the period 2010-2013. Armenia will benefi t from achievements, the EU is providing further budget support EUR 185 million, Azerbaijan EUR 129 million, Belarus (EUR 15 million from 2011 onwards) for continued VET EUR 80 million, Georgia EUR 217 million, and reforms and development of an employment strategy. Moldova EUR 339 million for the same period. These total amounts include the amount foreseen for CIB and PRDP programmes. Assistance to the Milli Mejlis (Parliament) of the Republic of Azerbaijan (twinning operation) A few examples of recent or ongoing bilateral Twinning is a joint implementation tool of cooperation programmes are presented below. between public administrations of an EU Member State and a benefi ciary country. It aims at helping Supporting vocational education and training in the Republic of Armenia (Budget support benefi ciary countries to develop modern and effi cient operation) administrations. Institutional twinning programmes will always consist of sending to the benefi ciary The EU is supporting the Armenian government in its country at least one resident adviser and a number of efforts to reduce the high unemployment rates and boost medium and short-term missions, all to be carried out job creation. A large programme has been initiated in by public offi cials of the EU Member State institution. 2008 funded under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) with the aim to increase The EU currently funds 10 institutional twinning 4 the quality of vocational education and training (VET), so operations with different Azerbaijani administrations, that it becomes more relevant to the needs of the labour including in the areas of statistics, food security, market. The newly established National VET Council support to Parliament, energy and anti-corruption, mainly provides strategic guidance while its operational among others. For example; a twinning operation arm, the National Centre for VET Development, follows was launched in September 2009 (budget: EUR 950 up the reform in relation to curricula, standards and 000) bringing together the Milli Mejlis (Parliament) teachers training. In addition a partial reorganisation of the of the Republic of Azerbaijan and its twin partner VET department was carried out and newly established the Offi ce of the Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic college management boards were introduced. of Lithuania. The operation aims at supporting the process of aligning the Azerbaijani legislation more From the already existing 81 colleges in the Republic with European Union norms and standards (what of Armenia 12 were selected to become regional is called EU law “approximation”) and at the same time raising awareness about EU institutions, policies, strategy, a redefi nition of the role of the Centre for laws and law-making processes among both Milli Economic Crimes and Corruption, the drafting of a Mejlis personal and the civil society. With the support Road Map for police reform, and the preparation of a of the twinning partner, a team of 5 lawyers was Migration and Asylum strategy. established in the Apparatus of Milli Mejlis to work on EU law “approximation”. A new Constitutional law on “Normative Legal Acts” has also been prepared Supporting environmental protection in the and a virtual European Union Information Centre, Republic of Belarus accessible from the Milli Mejlis website, has been launched. EU’s assistance to Belarus aims at supporting the population and civil society organisations in different areas including higher education, environment, energy High Level Policy Advice to the Republic of and regional and sustainable development. The Moldova environment is one of