Prague and Warsaw: the drivers of the Eastern Partnership
News Source: PASOS Secretariat, Prague, Czech Republic , Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw, Poland
In association with PASOS, the Institute of Public Affairs (ISP), Poland, has authored a policy paper, Partners in Eastern Promise: A chance for Polish-Czech co-operation Forging Synergies within the Framework of the EU Eastern Partnership initiative, setting out a set of policy recommendations for enhanced co-operation between Poland and the Czech Republic to strengthen progress on the Eastern Partnership initiative
The policy paper was written by Elżbieta Kaca, Researcher, European Programme, Institute of Public Affairs (ISP), Poland, and Jacek Kucharczyk, President, Institute of Public Affairs (ISP), Poland, in association with Jeff Lovitt, Executive Director, PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society)
The development of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) has to date been driven largely by Poland and the Czech Republic. In May 2008, Poland and Sweden put forward a Partnership proposal, which was subsequently accepted at an informal summit of the European Council in June of the same year. In December 2008, a European Commission Communication was issued which comprised specific proposals concerning the discussed initiative. The Communication met with a warm welcome on the part of the Polish government. Later on, in the course of negotiations between EU member states, Poland supported the allocation of € 600 million for the period to 2013 for the Eastern Partnership, which was finally approved at the European Council summit in March 2009, despite the global economic crisis and the reluctance of some net contributors to the EU budget.
The Czech position towards the Eastern Partnership was at first rather complex. In April 2008, prior to the presentation of the EaP project, Prague presented its own proposal in the area of the EU’s Eastern policy at the level of the Visegrad Group, which was then accepted by Slovakia and Hungary. Poland, promoting its own EaP initiative, did not take into consideration the Czech proposal, which was not well received by other Visegrad Group countries. However, the Czech Republic eventually backed the Polish project and participated, along with Poland and Sweden, in the talks with the European Commission on the specific contents of the Partnership in October 2008.
As a consequence, the EaP became one of the priorities during the Czech Presidency in the European Council in the period January-June 2009. The stronger support given to the EaP by the Czech Republic during its presidency might have been influenced by the shift in Czech public opinion following the Russia-Georgia of August 2008 and the gas dispute between Ukraine and Russia in January 2009.
The policy paper includes a series of recommendations for the Czech and Polish governments concerning future co-operation on the Eastern Partnership initiative. This policy brief was written as part of the project, Eastern Partnership – Polish and Czech perspectives, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Czech Republic, in the framework of the Czech-Polish Forum.
PASOS_ISP_policybrief07dec09A4.pdf (250.82 kB)
