European Commission to adopt annual report May 15

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Commission is set to adopt its annual European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) report, on May 15, assessing the progress made in 12 neighboring countries over the past year. The new package consists of 19 different documents, including two reports reviewing the progress made in 2011 in the implementation of the Eastern Partnership and the Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity, as well as a statistical analysis, according to Europolitics.

“The communiqué contains several proposals on improving our cooperation,” a senior EU official said. “We have done a lot in terms of allocating additional funding, development of negotiations on association agreements, negotiations of trade agreements, mobility and sectoral cooperation,” he said, describing the EU’s efforts as “impressive”. However, he recognized that the EU needed to work harder on the implementation of long-term strategies.

Assessing the 12 countries featured in the report, the source explained that “the situation was more mixed, but still encouraging”. Among those countries, Ukraine raises concern over its “selective justice system," while Azerbaijan and Syria are “not doing that great” themselves. The main areas where improvement is needed, according to the EU official, are: the judiciary, the rule of law, corruption, inclusive growth and respect for minorities. In its report, the Commission is expected to lay out proposals on ways to improve the situation in said areas.

The ENP framework is proposed to 16 of the EU's closest neighbours – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Algeria, Israel, Libya and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The first 12 will be assessed in the report.