Borrell: The Future of the Eastern Partnership Is Ambitious and Effective

Since its inception, the Eastern Partnership (EaP) has turned into a program of economic cooperation and support for democratic reforms that is very useful for both the European Union and its eastern neighbors. This is the opinion of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borel,  infotag.md reported. He stated this on the eve of the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels, stressing that the EU needs the Eastern partners "for stability and security, and even for economic prosperity." “The European Union has the right to be proud of the program launched in 2009, despite all the existing problems, since its results are tangible for the population of partner countries - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The challenges in the field of cooperation (the consequences of the COVID pandemic 19, which significantly changed the priorities of the program; conflicts in several partner states; popular demand movement and retaliatory repression) are increasingly difficult to answer, but it is necessary that we can meet these challenges together, relying on joint dialogue and the Eastern Partnership, prosperity, stability with eastern neighbors. This should be one of the priorities of the EU agenda, and this meets our mutual interests, " the head of European diplomacy stressed. According to him, it is necessary to strengthen the civil society of the EaP countries, support independent media, fight against corruption, spread respect for fundamental values and human rights. " Borel described the future of the program as "strategic, ambitious, efficient and flexible at once." He admitted that given "the very serious problems in the EaP countries (military clashes, instability, corruption, election fraud) it will not be easy to correct the situation in them in a few years." “I'm not saying that the situation there is very positive. But it would be much worse without this partnership,” Josep Borel said.