CoE AND EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO FURNISH 33.8 MILLION EUROS FOR EASTERN PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS NEXT 3 YEARS

The Council of Europe and the European Commission have signed a new Agreement on cooperation aimed at promoting the development of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in six Eastern European countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

The Agreement stipulates a budget of 33.8 million euros for 2015-2017 to finance joint programs in the said Eastern Partnership countries.

The Agreement, signed in Brussels on Thursday by the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, and by Michael Kohler, Director of the European Commission Directorate-General for Neighborhood, is a component of the new strategic cooperation framework approved by the Council of Europe and European Union in April 2014. The considerable increase in financing reflects the positive results of the realization of such programs in previous years.

Infotag’s dossier: The Eastern Partnership Initiative, put forward by Poland and Sweden in the spring of 2008, envisages the European Union’s approximation with the eastern neighbors – Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorsky then called it “a practical and ideological continuation of the EU European Neighborhood Policy”.

Launched in full in May 2009 upon its signing by the countries concerned, the Eastern Partnership Program focuses on the following three main directions: creation of a free trade zone, preparation for the introduction of a visa-free regime at traveling to European states, and linking the Program countries to the European energy system.

The participation in the Program does not envisage an automatic admittance to the European Union – it only presupposes a political and economic approximation with it.

The Eastern Partnership Program has a budget of some 600 million euros. By year 2014, approximately 350 million euros was going to be used for multilateral projects, 175 million euros – for reforms in the countries concerned, and 75 million euros – for regional development projects.