"Eastern Partnership" is a program of cooperation of the European Union with some countries that were members of the USSR. In this article we will try to highlight some of the issues associated with it: the purpose of creating an organization, which countries of the former Union are included in it, what has been done in the framework of cooperation, etc.
Eastern Partnership: participating countries
May 7, 2009 is the official launch date of the EU cooperation program with some East European and South Caucasian states. The creators of the program were Sweden and Poland. We list the countries of the Eastern Partnership:
- Armenia;
- Azerbaijan;
- Belarus;
- Georgia;
- Moldova;
- Ukraine.
Goals
The Eastern Partnership at the European Union Summit in Prague identified the main goals and objectives:
- Creation of in-depth free trade zones.
- Beginning of work on the creation of a visa-free regime for the “countries of the Eastern Partnership - EU”
- Contributing to a change in the economy in order to bring it closer to EU standards.
- Creating effective public administration and control.
- Assistance in the development of areas related to non-governmental sectors of the economy and the environment.
The Eastern Partnership sets itself the main task - the accession of the former socialist countries to the European Union.
What is the true purpose?
Many political scientists and economists are skeptical of the plans of the above countries to join the EU. Weak economically states are not needed in a single European economy. The true goal of the EU, in their opinion, is to secure new markets for itself. Only Azerbaijan among all the participants in the partnership at the time of creation could reach the high European standards. The abandonment of our markets, the severance of relations with Moscow not only did not bring benefits to these countries, but, on the contrary, greatly worsened their economic situation. The reason is that after the collapse of the USSR, these states did not lose economic ties with Moscow. Some, such as Belarus, were completely “attached” to Russia even more than it was during the time of a single country.
Only Azerbaijan has the least connections with our country. This is confirmed by the largest socio-economic crises that occurred in these states after the signing of the Trade Association.
Russia believes that the Eastern Partnership project was created in order to bring the former USSR countries out of the influence of our country. Our leadership and political scientists consider it more political than economic. The argument is that many of the countries included in the project have different levels of socio-economic development. And if Azerbaijan could still be “pulled up” to the European level, then Armenia and Belarus should completely change the entire macroeconomic and political system in the state. In fact, a revolution must occur in these countries in order for the elites to change. Similar processes occurred in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The result showed that a reorientation to Europe in modern conditions is unprofitable for these countries. Ukraine suffers tremendous losses from the loss of the Russian market, Georgia and Moldova have committed, one might say, “counter-revolution”. They again won the political elite, calling for rapprochement with Moscow.
Also, the “accelerated regime” of its creation after the Russian-Georgian armed conflict in 2008 can be considered an argument in favor of the partnership pursuing political goals.
Initiators of creation
The Eastern Partnership program was created by Poland and Sweden.First, it was approved by all the countries of the Visegrad EU group: Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland - as well as the Baltic countries. The Eastern Partnership has been actively supported by Germany.
Let us turn to the question of what “free, democratic, prosperous” Europe offers to the “backward and undeveloped” countries of the former USSR.
Association Agreements
Many economists and political scientists are convinced that the EU’s true goal in creating the project is to push through association agreements. It involves cooperation in foreign and domestic policy, economic rapprochement. The agreement is extremely disadvantageous for the former Soviet countries: it opens up their markets for free access to European goods, while the goods of these countries cannot freely go to Europe due to the lack of European standards at enterprises. In fact, the agreement creates neocolonial formations: goods come from Europe to the former USSR countries, and cheap raw materials to the EU come from there. No one will openly declare this, therefore Europeans are offering the Eastern Partnership countries to switch to European production standards. For such a transition, it is necessary to completely destroy all existing factories and plants, and to build new ones in their place. Naturally, such a transition will take decades, and pay off altogether through the centuries. In addition, the six partner countries do not have huge amounts of money, resources, technologies necessary for the reconstruction, therefore, only the European countries themselves can create new modernized plants with European quality standards.
"Ukraine CE Europe?"
In exchange for the signing of an association agreement, these countries promise a future "paradise European life" and the abolition of visas. All Ukrainians, Belarusians, Georgians in the future will be able to move freely without restrictions on the EU. At least, so they promised many Ukrainians during the so-called “Euromaidan”, after which the current president V. Yanukovych was overthrown. Recall: the Ukrainian government at the very last moment refused to sign the agreement, as it understood that the association would do great harm to the country's economy. The quotas provided by the agreement for the supply of goods of Ukrainian producers to Europe are even less than those that Ukraine sends there without association. In fact, a neocolonial treaty was imposed, according to which European goods freely poured into its territory. Ukraine itself was deprived of a huge sales market in the countries of Russia and the CIS, since we had to close the border so that European goods would not flood the Russian shelves to the detriment of our manufacturers.
In fairness, let’s say that we nevertheless began to observe this after the introduction of food counter-sanctions in response to European decisions. Belarusian seafood, Parmesan cheese and other exotic goods that the fraternal state never produced before restrictive measures appeared on the shelves of Russian stores. The re-branding of trademarks from European to Belarusian in most cases is illegal. However, this can still be fought, but the flow of European goods from Ukraine to Russia would be completely within the framework of existing agreements. Therefore, Ukraine had to be excluded from duty-free trade within the CIS.
Visa waiver
Citizens of the six countries participating in the Eastern Partnership were bribed by the future liberalization of the visa regime. Like, all of them will soon be able to move freely around the EU in order to get an education, find work, and relax. Most citizens of the six partner countries are EU poor. Consequently, there is no question of any rest and education. For example, a Ukrainian pension is enough to drink a cup of coffee in Spain a couple of times, while the Spanish one allows you to travel peacefully. European education is also inaccessible to many citizens because of the high cost.
Then why did Ukrainian citizens so actively support visa liberalization? It's all about labor visas: many want to go to work for low-paid, by the standards of Europeans, profession janitors, movers, sellers. For many Moldovans, Armenians, Georgians and Ukrainians, the “penny” that can be earned in the EU will allow their families to live comfortably at home. The situation is reminiscent of the influx of migrant workers from Central Asia to Moscow: Muscovites themselves do not go to low-paying jobs, and Uzbeks and Tajiks did not even dream of such salaries in their homeland. Some of them are ready to live in any conditions for several months in the Russian capital, so that later they can live comfortably at home for a year.
The problem of visa liberalization
The liberalization of the visa regime of the six countries of the Eastern Partnership - the EU has one problem: there are no clear steps to abolish it. European countries themselves say visa denial is a long-term goal of EU policy. The term “long-term goal” means the complete absence of a time frame. In other words, our grandchildren may not live up to this day. The Eastern Partnership countries have been negotiating liberalization since March 2007, and Ukraine was promised some concessions as early as 2010. Kiev opposition during the period of active revolutionary events on the Maidan promised the abolition of visas as soon as the "bloody and thieves regime" Yanukovych was overthrown. And only very recently, on April 26, 2017, the European Parliament still voted to abolish visas for Ukrainians. On June 11, European borders will open for them. For this, of course, it is still necessary to obtain the approval of the Council of the European Union, which will be held on May 11. However, do not forget that we are talking about a visa-free travel regime. About the free entry of labor is not a question. In Europe, there are already enough migrants from the Middle East and Africa. The countries of the "Eastern Partnership" as sources of EU labor are clearly not needed.
What will the abolition of visas for Ukraine
The EU is not going to open the door wide open for migrant workers. Innovations will affect only those citizens who gather in the EU for the purpose of traveling for up to 90 days in a 180-day period. This is not all: at the border control they will require a large package of documents. And this is in addition to obtaining a biometric passport that is expensive for ordinary residents. The absence of any certificate will give the right to border guards not to let tourists into the EU, despite all the costs incurred in organizing the trip.
Moldovans already have a bitter experience of canceling visas from the EU: for three years, European "friends" did not let almost 5 thousand people into their territory. We are not talking about migrant workers who are trying to get into the EU illegally to earn money. Well-off tourists return who went on vacation to Europe.
Russia - Eastern Partnership
European partners all the time argue that the agreement is not directed against Russia. However, our diplomats have long learned to decipher the actions of the West. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the formation of the agreement as "an attempt to create an allied sphere of influence in the East." Also, the partnership does not imply the participation of the Russian Federation in it.
In 2008, the President of Poland was the leader of the anti-Russian party “Law and Justice” Lech Kaczynski. It was he who owed the merit for the early creation of the “Eastern Partnership” with the aim of quarreling the six former union republics with Russia. During the Russian-Georgian conflict, Kaczynski openly sided with Georgia.
What's next?
Recent summits of the Eastern Partnership have shown that the EU has “played enough” in teaching democracy to the former USSR countries. So, on September 19, 2016, Brussels announced assistance only to Azerbaijan and Belarus in the framework of the partnership.
According to many political scientists, the EU intends to wind down the Eastern European partnership.This is due to the British exit from the European Union and the migration crisis. A reorientation of interests takes place: all efforts are devoted to preserving a united Europe. Now the EU cannot afford to spend resources and time on integration with economically weak former Soviet republics. Most likely, the Eastern Partnership will be transformed into a political organization in order to prevent Russia's influence on these countries. However, the last presidential election in Moldova in October 2016 reoriented one of the six partner countries towards our state.