"VAN" (Europe Bureau - Aleksey Vesyoliy) :: 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of cooperation between the European Union and Eastern Partnership countries, a partnership that is based on shared values – fundamental freedoms, democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law, as well as a shared commitment to market economy and sustainable development.
Launched in 2009 as a joint policy initiative, the Eastern Partnership (EaP) aims to deepen and strengthen relations between the European Union (EU) and its six Eastern neighbours: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
The overall framework guiding relations between the EU and its six Eastern Partners is provided by the relevant bilateralagreements, such as the Association Agreements, as well as the Association Agendas and the Partnership Priorities and the Eastern Partnership 20 Deliverables for 2020.
Eastern Partnership countries also participate in the initiatives open to all Neighbourhood countries. For example, young peoplefrom EaP countries can take part in the Erasmus+ academic and cultural exchanges, while the civil servants of EaP countries benefit from the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange instrument (TAIEX), a flexible and customized program that provides EaP countries with support from experts in response to their needs in the approximation of EU legislation.
Through Twinning instrument, the EU helps EaP countries improve their public administration by training staff and assisting in reorganization of government institutions. Another program implemented by the EU and aimed at strengthening public governance systems and public administration capacities of the EaP countries is SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management).
The Neighbourhood Investment Platform (NIP) is a EU mechanism for funding infrastructure projects in the EaP countries. In this way, the EU helps in improving their transport, energy, environment and social development sectors. Additionally, different Cross-Border Cooperation programmes promote cooperation between the EU member states and neighbouring partner countries, including the EaP countries.
The overall framework guiding relations between the EU and its six Eastern Partners is provided by the relevant bilateral agreements, such as the Association Agreements, as well as the Association Agendas and the Partnership Priorities and the Eastern Partnership 20 Deliverables for 2020 aligned along the four key priority areas.
4 main priority areas of the Eastern Partnership are:
1. economic development and market opportunities: to support EaP Partner Countries move towards diversified and vibrant economies, to create jobs in new sectors, attract investments and foster employability; to support macroeconomic stability; to drive economic transition process forward with a view to create an attractive environment, a level playing-field for investments and business, as well as to improve the capacity of Partner Countries to take advantage of the trade opportunities with the EU and with each other;
2. strengthening institutions and good governance: to fight against corruption, to support justice reform and reinforce public administration; to strengthen security cooperation, notably to disrupt organised crime, support conflict resolution, crisis prevention, civil protection against new threats and cybersecurity; these are the preconditions for citizens' trust in the state, long-term stability and an investment-safe climate;
3. connectivity, energy efficiency, environment and climate change: to facilitate transport interconnections between EU and the Eastern Partners and within the countries in the region, facilitating economic development, regional economic integration and people's mobility; energy, environment and climate action, to make Partner Countries less exposed to external risks and helping them develop sustainable and low-carbon economies attracting investment, as well as address environmental challenges and promote sustainable development;
4. mobility and people-to-people contacts: bring EU and Partner Countries' societies closer together and enhance mobility in a secure and well managed environment; to invest in young people's skills, entrepreneurship and employability, with a particular focus on leadership, mobility and quality of formal and non-formal education; to promote the diversification of professional cross-regional networks; to foster the integration of EaP and EU research and innovation systems and programmes.
As you can see, these priority areas cover different aspects of public life: from security and economics to education and skills. Therefore, the cooperation between the EU and EaP countries runs simultaneously in various directions that all together contribute to theimprovement of governance and socio-economic conditions in the EaP countries.
Under each of these areas, the EU and EaP partner countries developed several “deliverables” – 20 specific goals that they plan to reach by 2020. For example, “Create new job opportunities at thelocal and regional level” is one of the deliverables within the Economic development and market opportunities priority area, while “Strengthen investment in youngpeople’s skills, entrepreneurship and employability” is a deliverable you can find within the Mobility and people-to-people contacts priority area.
Innovation and technological advances are constantly changing the ways we communicate, work, and live together, and education systems which reflect this dynamic will be most capable of responding effectively to the current and changing needs of young people, society and the labour market. Change is the new constant in every sector, affected as it is by wider socio-economic and technological developments. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital.
There are also three “cross-cutting” deliverables among the 20 deliverables for 2020, which mean that they are relevant to different areas. They include more engagement with civil society, increased gender equality, as well as supporting media and strengthening strategic communications.
The successes of the EaP however need to be evaluated against the backdrop of patchy rule of law reforms, insufficient respect of human rights, widespread corruption and weak environmental protection and climate change mitigation.
EaP countries must continue implementing the fundamental reforms they have undertaken to make and EU support is dependent on the countries’ own work.
Consistency is needed when implementing reforms of judiciary, tackling corruption and money-laundering, discriminatory practices or facilitating good working environment for media and civil society. Rule of law is the foundation of stable reforms in all areas: without it, any progress is reversible, any investment can potentially be lost.
The EaP beyond 2020 must be modelled around a renewed and strengthened cooperation between the EU and democratically-minded constituencies in the region, in particular civil society. The long-term engagement of the actors beyond the governments benefits the policy implementation and leads to more sustainable results. Such cooperation can be effective if the civil society is allowed space to operate and if it is considered as a fully–fledged partner. At the moment, the 20 Deliverables for 2020, which include civil society as a cross-cutting deliverable – miss the larger issue of civil society’s operating space and its position in relation to the EU and the EaP governments.
The role of civil society in programming, monitoring and evaluating the new funding instrument should be enhanced and correspond to the growing engagement of civil society in the policy-making cycle at the EaP multilateral and bilateral level.
In the upcoming period, the partnership has to be shaped as a two-way street where spheres of cooperation that are of interest to both sides, the EaP and the EU, should be found. Short-term, mid-term and long-term policy goals should be spelled out and explained to EaP citizens to create ownership over the reforms. To stimulate reform, the new policy should be built as a set of transformational tools available to different actors – notonly the governments, but also civil society, business, local authorities so that the motivated actors within society are strengthened.
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Publication authors:
Sintija Bernava
European Union Coordinator, Working Group 4 “Contacts between people” (WG4) of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF)
Chairwoman of the Board, Non Governmental Organization "DONUM ANIMUS" (Latvia)
Iryna Fedets
Senior Research Associate, Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (Ukraine)
Please find full article with photos at EUNetwork.lv
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