The Declaration of the Riga Eastern Partnership Summit of May 21- 22 recognizes the European aspirations of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia based on the principle of differentiation, which gives the other three EaP partner states – Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Belarus – the right to choose another level of interest, IPN’s correspondent in Riga reports.
On the other hand - as it was expected and despite requests formulated by some politicians - the Declaration says nothing about aspirating countries’ prospects of becoming members of the EU. In the windup conference, the President of the European Council Donald Tusk said nobody promised the Eastern Partnership would be an automatic path for EU membership. Earlier, the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis told the journalists that the EaP is not an enlargement, but a partnership instrument. The incentive-based principle ‘more for more’, reiterated in the Declaration, suggests that everything should be done step by step, including within the association agreements, and that the aspiring countries have yet homework to do.
Skeptics’ expectations weren’t however met given that the Declaration included an implicit condemnation of the ‘illegal annexation of Crimea’. The forecasts were that some of the countries will oppose such a formulation. Azerbaijan indeed needed more time to be convinced to put its signature and, as some sources said, was even close to giving up, but its seems that the objections referred more to the text about Nagorno-Karabakh from the Declaration.
Having a pacifist tone in geopolitical context, the EaP Summit Declaration assures that the EaP is not directed against anyone, the participating states underlining the necessity of resolving the conflicts in the region, including the Transnistrian one. Moldova is mentioned in the Declaration mainly in a positive context, with Moldovan Foreign Affairs Minister Natalia Gherman confirming that the country was given in the summit as an example of success in a number of areas. Moldova remains the only EasP country that has a visa-free regime with the EU. Georgia and Ukraine didn’t manage to obtain concrete promises in this respect. A made promise was that this subject will be discussed again at yearend, depending on the made progress.
As to financial support, the European officials announced that Ukraine will get €1.8 billion in support on condition that it fulfills the earlier financial commitments, while Moldova, alongside Georgia and Ukraine, will benefit from €200 million worth of grants intended for SMEs, which are expected to attract at least €2 billion worth of investments.
The Riga EaP Summit ended with the hope that progress will be made within the current commitments and that more favorable times will be witnessed by the next summit that will be held in 2017. Minister Gherman confirmed that this could be hosted by Chisinau.