Rendez-vous with Eastern Europe

With multiple top-level political meetings scheduled in the near future to review progress of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership (EaP), Michael Emerson examines the EU’s posture in two key areas – free trade and visa liberalisation – where something could be done promptly and which would mean something tangible for the states in the region. Instead, he is disappointed to report that the EU has devised long, long processes of conditionality for the partner countries to meet and has deferred concrete benefits to the distant future.
Michael Emerson is Senior Research Fellow and head of the EU Foreign, Security and Neighbourhood Policies research programme at CEPS. He is the former EU ambassador to Russia.