EU shakes up eastern states

TALKS TO IMPROVE FORMER SOVIET COUNTRIES Despite fears of Russian influence, body will tackle corruption, economies.

The European Union’s (EU) bid to deepen ties with six former Soviet states enters its latest round in Brussels today with anxiety about Russian influence running higher than ever in the bloc.

But with Russia and the war in eastern Ukraine off the official agenda, the Eastern Partnership summit looks likely to be more of a stock-taking exercise than a substantive statement of intent.

The EU says today’s set-piece with Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus will focus on 20 “deliverables” – an action plan to tackle corruption, improve the rule of law and modernise their economies.

The war rumbling on in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed separatists gets no mention in a joint declaration to be made at the summit, according to a draft.

The statement limits itself to a bland call for “renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region” – a sharp contrast with the strong language on Ukraine after the last Eastern Partnership summit in 2015, which criticised Russia’s annexation of Crimea outright.

An EU official insisted that the bloc was still “deeply engaged” in efforts to resolve conflicts in the former Soviet states but that the summit was not the right place to pursue them. “A summit is not an instrument of conflict resolution, it is an instrument to discuss how we can develop our partnership.”

The conflict in Ukraine, which has killed more than 10 000 people, began after Russia invaded Crimea in the wake of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych’s ousting, which followed his refusal to sign an association accord with the EU.

Ukraine has been pushing for a clear pledge from the 28-member bloc that one day it will be allowed to join, with President Petro Poroshenko warning that closing the door to membership would validate the Kremlin’s claims to “special interests” in the region.

“What Ukraine ultimately wants is a simple message: ‘Once you’re ready, you’re in’,” Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, wrote in an editorial for the EU Observer site last week.

Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip also called for the “European integration door” to be kept open last week. – AFP