Poland pushes for Eastern Partnership initiative 16.07.2008
Poland continues to promote its first serious initiative within the European Union since the country joined the structures in 2004. The Eastern Partnership initiative, as it is called was presented by the Polish PM Donald Tusk during a summit in Brussels last month. The project aims at deepening the co-operation between the EU and its eastern neighbors, and so far has the support of, among others, Germany, Sweden, Great Britain and Denmark.
The project of the Eastern Partnerhsip which was officially proposed to the EU during the June summit in Brussels states that a forum for regional cooperation of the 27 EU countries with Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia should be created. The forum is to be used for specific projects in the area of, for example, environmental protection or energy with the central role to be played by the European Commission. The strengthening of cooperation with EU's eastern neighbours is also to be a priority for the Czech presidency, which starts on 1 January next year. Poland's Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski reiterated these goals during his recent visit to Moldova where he pledged assistance in that country's EU aspirations:
'We are ready to offer training to Moldovan diplomats at our foreign ministry. Also, to Moldovan police at Police Academy and we are every year increasing developmental assistance to Moldova.'
The Eastern Partnership is to be based on the existing European Neighbourhood Policy. The goals to be achieved are: visa-free travel and creating a free-trade initiative. The Eastern Partnership projects are to be financed from the EU budget but individual member states can also earmark some funds in theirs. Poland is counting on some projects to be co-financed by the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Leszek Jesień is na expert from the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw:
'We have simultaneous approach of two sides: the French initiative of the Mediteranean Union towards the south and we have this Polish-Swedish that goes into the eastern direction. I think it should be interesting for all the EU member states in a sense that it gives this kind of diversification or variety of instruments within the neighbourhood policy. We need to see what kind of proposals we can put into the initiative in order to evaluate what kind of problems or successes we can expect in the future. At this stage it is only a conceptual framework.'
Oskar Chomicki of "Poland in Europe" Foundation says that having such an initiative may strengthen the EU as it would allow countries like Poland to have specific objectives to fulfill.
'I think it's a very good idea especially in the light of the official character of that initiative because so far all Polish initiatives directed at or having in mind the eastern countries have rather been informal. I think thanks to the official character of this initiative this fact may be of quuite great importance. Especially if you think of it in parallel to what was initiated by president Sarkozy. And I think Poland has a role to play in this eastern initiative.'
According to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, the strengthening of the eastern dimension of the bloc's 'neighbourhood policy' will be the priority of Poland's presidency in the European Union in the second half of 2011.
