Paper Titles & Abstracts

Eastern Partnership policies are being developed since 2008, and received strong political impetus during the Polish Council Presidency during 2011, since Poland is one of the main advocates of the further development of the EU's relations with this region. Through the establishment of channels of deep cooperation with Eastern neighbours, Warsaw hopes to contribute to setting up an area of stability, democracy and prosperity in its vicinity according to the EU standards. The paper identifies three groups of difficulties regarding the effective realization of these goals: on the EU side, in the partner countries, and those associated with external problems. The key obstacle on the EU side is the financial and economic crisis which makes that the main concern of member states is focused on all possible rescue measures. On the partners' side, we see that some of them are not interested in westwards oriented reforms, and instead perceive their future in close cooperation with Russia. The third and most important obstacle for the strengthening of the Eastern Partnership were the recent violent developments in North Africa and Middle East, which in many cases resulted in the abolition of authoritarian regimes. As a consequence, the main attention of European politicians and Member States has been directed onto the EU's Southern Neighbourhood. The area behind the Eastern border of the EU is not in the centre of their interest. The article tries to indicate possible solutions to these problems and to draw a strategy to further develop Eastern Partnership policies.