EU gives green light to Eastern Partnership

PanARMENIAN.Net - European Union leaders backed plans on Friday to offer closer ties to the bloc's eastern neighbors.



The Eastern Partnership plan is to offer new areas of cooperation to Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and, subject to domestic reforms, Belarus. But the plan is vague, with details only to be worked out by March, 2009.



"The European Council (EU governments) agrees on the need to further promote regional cooperation among the EU's eastern neighbors and between the EU and the region," said the leaders' draft statement, due to be endorsed at the summit.



Poland and Sweden, authors of the project, hope it will become a forum of multilateral cooperation with regular meetings of ministers and leaders. They said it could prepare the countries for eventual EU membership.



The EU's eastern neighbors are already linked to Brussels through the strictly bilateral European Neighborhood Policy, which offers countries better trade access, economic assistance and visa liberalization as they adapt to EU standards, Reuters reports.