European Joint Doctorate
Globalisation, Europe & Multilateralism - Sophistication of the Transnational Order, Networks, and European Strategies
Eastern Partnership at the Service of Geopolitics?
GEM-STONES Policy Briefs. AGORA Forum, March 2020
Executive Summary
10 years after the launch of the Eastern Partnership (EaP), the EU finds itself in a dilemma: On the one hand the ‘European aspirations’ of many of the Eastern partners are the driving force behind their domestic democratic reform process; on the other hand, the very same European course nurtures a climate of geopolitical instability in which a democratic transformation and subsequently EU integration seems hardly possible.
Attributing success and failure of democratic reforms in Moldova solely to a geopolitical dimension (EU versus Russian influence) underestimates the agency of domestic political actors. The EU should therefore avoid geopolitical confrontation over the eastern neighbourhood but focus mainly on economic development and enable domestic governments to create better living conditions for their citizens.
This project receives funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No 722826.