WARSAW 29-30 Sep 2011 Poland hosts Eastern Partnership Summit

WARSAW 29-30 Sep 2011 Poland hosts Eastern Partnership Summit

The European Union endorsed a new approach to relations with its Eastern neighbors at the June EU summit. The leaders of the 27 EU member states and the six Eastern Partnership nations will tackle the reported slow start for the 2-year-old body. The Eastern Partnership aims to deepen political and trade ties with six ex-Soviet countries -- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine -- but money-strapped Europe is struggling to keep the body funded.

Belarus's participation is suspended because of political conditions in the country. It might not be represented at the summit.

The initiative’s agenda is aimed primarily at bringing the countries closer to the West, provide an alternative to Moscow’s influence, and was initially championed by both Poland and Sweden on the EU stage. Radio Poland notes that awareness of the program is still lacking in countries such as Georgia, while in Ukraine, there are complaints that the EU is lacking drive to help the Eastern Partnership get off the ground. Borys Tarasyuk, formerly Ukraine’s foreign minister and current head of the People’s Movement of Ukraine party, said that "after two years, the Eastern Partnership is still a conceptual programme which is on paper [only]."

Non-governmental organisations are report funding as a problem with getting programs under way. The Eastern Partnership has been billed of one of Poland’s priorities for its EU Council presidency, which began on Jul 1. It was inaugurated in the Czech capital of Prague in May 2009.

The summit was postponed from May in Hungary, then EU rotating president, because of a conflict with the G8 summit of leading economies.

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