The purpose of the project is to develop policy recommendations on further development of the Eastern ENP and Common Spaces with Russia that would lead to a comprehensive regional strategy for the EU’s policy towards Eastern Europe.
Partners: The Friedrich Ebert Foundation
Main goals:
1. Policy recommendations on further development of the present ENP following its impact assessment on democratic consolidation and modernization of the ENP countries in Eastern Europe as well as its effectiveness for pursuing the EU’s interests in the region
2. Policy recommendations on advancing the EU – Russia cooperation within the framework of Common Spaces based on the impact assessment of its actual results and contribution to the EU’s interests
3. Policy recommendations on developing a regional strategy for the EU’s Eastern policy through converging the Eastern ENP and Common Spaces with Russia
Methodology:
Part 1: The ENP; analysis of the existing ENP instruments, including their policy and institutional framework. The research will start from the impact assessment of the EU-Ukraine Action Plan, which has become the first implemented Action Plan within the ENP as of the end of 2007. There will be the following two main criteria for evaluating the EU-Ukraine Action Plan: first, its impact on democratic consolidation and reform process in Ukraine and second, its merit for pursuing the EU’s interests vis-à-vis Ukraine. The sources of research data will be relevant documents of both official and non-official provenience, including secondary analytical sources and finally, expert interviews with representatives of Ukrainian and EU institutions.
The research will look for further development of the Action Plan as an ENP instrument in terms of both its content and its institutional framework. The research will also examine new ENP instruments that have been introduced during recent EU presidencies of Finland and Germany, esp. Community program, Thematic Dialogue and Sectoral Agreement. Special attention will be paid to the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) in terms of its coherence with the aforementioned ENP policy planning and implementing instruments. The research will aim to advance the new ENP instruments and to draft their complex configuration with clear a division of their role, agenda and institutional framework, including their synergy with the “old” ENP instrument Action Plan, in order to improve both the efficiency and relevance of the ENP.
In addition, the research will examine the existing regional frameworks for the ENP, namely its Northern and Southern dimensions and including the recent Black Sea Synergy Initiative, with the aim to explore prospects for establishing a regional framework for the ENP in Eastern Europe. Special attention will be paid to the regional component of the ENP in its Eastern neighborhood through looking for a potential for regionalization of the EU’s policies in the sectors of its vital interests, e.g. energy, JHA, transport infrastructure, etc., including prospects for participation of Russia.
Part 2: Common Spaces with Russia; analysis of the present experience, operational level and results of the EU-Russia cooperation within the Four Common Spaces (the Common Economic Space, the Common Space of Freedom, Security and Justice, the Common Space on External Security, and the Common Space on Research, Education and Culture). The research will scrutinize the existing framework of the EU-Russia Common Spaces from the point of the EU’s efficiency in policy planning, agenda setting, effects of the Common Spaces (CS) dialogue, including its institutional design. The evaluation of the efficiency of the EU-Russia cooperation within the Common Spaces will follow comparison of the EU’s interests vis-à-vis Russia against the instrumentality of the CS framework for their enforcement. The research will focus on the areas of the EU’s vital interests, e.g. energy security, CFSP and JHA. The research will aim to explore prospects for bridging the CS agenda with Russia with the EU’s ENP in Eastern Europe, especially in the areas that will be identified in the Part 1 as the most relevant ones for their sectoral regionalization.
Part 3: Regional Strategic Framework for the EU’s Eastern policy; the research will draft a comprehensive regional strategy for the EU vis-à-vis the region of Eastern Europe that would attempt to bridge the EU’s ENP in the region with its CS agenda with Russia. Policy recommendations will identify a way to evolve and to reshape the concepts of both the ENP and CS with Russia frameworks, including the sequence and implementation of policy measures, aimed at achieving a convergence effect of both EU policies. The results of our research will try to contribute to the EU’s ability to become a more efficient foreign policy player in the region as well as to improve its capacity to assist the Eastern European countries in their post-Soviet modernization.
Timetable: 2008-2009
2008: Part I: ENP
March-September: background research
September-October: draft policy paper (ENP) and comments by opponents
November: international conference (Bratislava)
December: presentation (Prague)
January: presentation (Brussels)
2009: Part II plus III: Common Spaces plus Regional Strategy
February-May: background research on Common Spaces (CS)
June: draft policy paper (CS) and comments by opponents
September-October: draft regional strategy and comments by opponents
November: international workshop (Brussels)
December: publication