Dossier

Ideas for the EU’s Policy vis-à-vis its Eastern Neighbors

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s and the major expansion of the European Union in the past decade, it has become necessary for the EU to adjust its relationship to its eastern neighbors. The greatest challenge in this regard is to ensure coherence between an active European Russia policy on one hand and equally dedicated and differentiated positions in relation to its other eastern neighbors.

The EU has a broad range of interests with regard to its neighbors to the East. Russia is the EU’s most important supplier of natural gas, while vital transit routes pass through countries such as Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia. Furthermore, with the eastward expansion of the European.

With our annual foreign policy conference in 2010 in cooperation with The European Council on Foreign Relations, we wanted to provide ideas for European and transatlantic debate about constructive policies for the EU to pursue in eastern Europe to go beyond geopolitical zero-sum games in promoting security, rule of law and sustainable development.

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