Civil Society Voices: How the EU Should Engage Its Eastern Neighbours

Amidst an uneasy ceasefire in Ukraine and uncertainty in Brussels as to what the Kremlin will do next, heads of state and government from the European Union and the six countries of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) will discuss the future of their relations at the Riga Summit on May 21–22. A new policy paper by the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI) finds that the Eastern Partnership remains the EU’s most effective foreign policy instrument to build stable institutions and states and reinforce neighbours’ sovereignty.

Civil Society Voices: How the EU Should Engage its Eastern Partners by Iskra Kirova (Policy Analyst at OSEPI) and Sabine Freizer (Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council) is the result of extensive discussions with experts and civil society leaders and highlights local concerns and expectations about the EU’s role in the region and its support for stability and democracy. As the EU rethinks its policies in the area, this paper offers recommendations on how to make the Eastern Partnership more effective and relevant to people, societies, and governments, and to secure the EU’s interests in an increasingly polarized and unstable region.

Click here to download the Full Report

Click here to read Iskra Kirova’s opinion article introducing the paper:

The Case for an Ambitious EU Policy in Its Eastern Neighbourhood