Pregledni rad
Eastern Partnership and EU Enlargement policy in the context of the War in Ukraine
Darko Martinović
; Fakultet političkih znanosti Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Republika Hrvatska
Sažetak
The Eastern Partnership (EaP) was launched in 2009 as an integral part of the European Neighbourhood Policy. It is a joint initiative of the European Union, its member states and six Eastern European and South Caucasian partner countries with the aim of political association and economic integration, but without guarantees or obligations of the Union regarding accession. After the Belarusian suspension of participation in the EaP and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the granting of candidate status for EU membership to Ukraine and Moldova, the future of the EaP has become extremely questionable, whilst the further destiny of most the Initiative countries largely depends on the outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The aim of this article is, based on the available sources, to analyse the opposing views of the EU and Russia on EaP, as well as the (geo)political heterogeneity of the IP countries themselves, with an emphasis on the fact that the so-called A3 countries, in terms of their long-lasting pro-European orientation, are more similar to the countries of the Western Balkans than to the rest of the EaP. Therefore, the first research question of this article is whether EaP has become obsolete after radical geopolitical changes? Another question is to what extent has the second Ukrainian war contributed to the interweaving of the ‘European path’ of the EaP countries and the Western Balkans? The chapters of the article are designed in accordance with the key subjects of analysis – the European and Russian perception of EaP, the specifics of each individual country of the initiative, comparison with the countries of the Western Balkans, and the impact of the war in Ukraine on EaP.
Ključne riječi
Eastern Partnership; European Union; Enlargement policy; Russia; Western Balkans
Hrčak ID:
303585
URI
Datum izdavanja:
7.6.2023.
Posjeta: 405 *