Suchergebnisse

It has been ten years since Poland and Sweden proposed the Eastern Partnership project, which was subsequently adopted on 7 May 2009 by the EU Council at the Prague Summit as the official policy of the European Union. It is a component of the broader EU foreign policy – the European Neighbourhood Policy, which was created in 2004. During this time, the EU has developed many forms of dialogue and cooperation with the six countries covered by the programme. Half of the countries have signed and started to implement new agreements to strengthen their relations. However, the Eastern Partnership is currently undergoing a serious test. Today, the biggest challenge of fundamental importance is the ongoing armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, which is a sign of a return to geopolitics in the region. These events have significantly changed the outlook and conditions under which the Eastern Partnership is implemented. Therefore, it is worth trying to answer a few research questions: has the Partnership proved to be a useful tool for attracting beneficiary countries to the EU? Have the initial and long-term objectives been achieved? Finally, is the project worth strengthening and continuing? The article will analyse the specificity of the programme, including strategic goals and their evolution, and attempt to assess the implementation of assumptions and instruments from the point of view of the research approach, which is the transformational power of the EU.

The purpose of the article is to try to outline whether the EU is still an attractive actor in international relations, which is conceptualised as a specific soft, normative and the same transformative power and the centre of attraction for states located outside this organisation. The credibility of the European Union on international arena was undermined by global changes taking place in the 21st century, including emergence of new non-European powers, and particularly a series of crises (financial, migration, identity) that have affected the EU recently. In the article the following analysis will be made: the basic components consisting of attractiveness of the EU and evolution of its perception on the international arena, and the main challenges that the EU has to cope with in order to become a significant power again. It is assumed that the European Union certainly lost its attractiveness and prestige as a result of recent transformations that affected it within the system, but also due to the dynamics of the international environment.

Although Eastern Partnership has won the support of the EU Member States it remains an initiative competitive for the Mediterranean Union, which is strongly promoted by France. Eastern policy can distract the EU's attention from the issue of North Africa France places so much importance on, therefore France can be expected to tend to marginalize the significance of Eastern Partnership. The same attitude may also be supported by Russia (as France attempts to establish cooperation along the Paris–Berlin–Moscow line, while neglecting the interests of Poland and Central and Eastern European countries). ; Although Eastern Partnership has won the support of the EU Member States it remains an initiative competitive for the Mediterranean Union, which is strongly promoted by France. Eastern policy can distract the EU's attention from the issue of North Africa France places so much importance on, therefore France can be expected to tend to marginalize the significance of Eastern Partnership. The same attitude may also be supported by Russia (as France attempts to establish cooperation along the Paris–Berlin–Moscow line, while neglecting the interests of Poland and Central and Eastern European countries).