REPORT: European Foreign Policy towards Eastern Europe: Future of Eastern Partnership beyond 2020

The expert panel discussion titled “European Foreign Policy towards Eastern Europe: Future of Eastern Partnership beyond 2020” was organised by the Think Visegrad - V4 Think Tank Platform (represented by EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy) together with the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union and Association for International Affairs (AMO).

The first panel focused on political and security aspects of the Eastern Partnership and was opened by Ms Alisa Muzergues, who made remarks on the question of the rule of law in the respective countries. The rule of law issue in these countries is not a technical problem, but rather a question of political culture and individual responsibility of actors. Building of a resilient country with strong institutions upholding the rule of law is a long journey which takes time. She proposed to create trust-building projects, such as political-security dialogues between the EU Member States and the Eastern Partnership countries and suggested to involve also like-minded countries, such as the United States, Canada and Japan. Mr Jaroslav Kurfürst offered his definition of what resilience means and elaborated on what can the European Union do better for the Eastern Partnership framework. He stressed the need for stronger participation and dialogue between partners. Civil protection can present a key focus area, as parts of the Eastern neighbourhood suffer from external threats from Russia. The European Union should strive to enhance visibility of the Eastern Partnership not only in the project countries, but also in the EU Member States - better communication is needed.

You can find the full report here.