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Turkey and Russia do not hurry to agree participating in EU program

Politics Materials 24 February 2009 22:24 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 24 / Trend , E.Ostapenko/ Russia and Turkey are not interested in the proposal of the European Union to participate in the discussions within European Union's Eastern Partnership program, since they relate to this initiative with distrust.

"The idea of Eastern Partnership means strengthening the one-sided influence of the European Union," the director of the Institute of Political Studies, Sergey Markov, told Trend .

At the meeting of the EU Council on External Relations on Feb. 23, the Foreign Minister of France Bernard Kushner proposed Russia and Turkey to join some meetings within the EU Eastern Partnership program, called to strengthen EU relations with six former Soviet republics.

"All agreed that sometimes, depending on agenda, we will give Russia and Turkey the possibility to join the discussions," said Kushner after meeting with his colleague on the European Union in Brussels, reported RIA Novosti.

The initiative of new EU Eastern Partnership program, approved by the European Commission on Dec. 4, belongs to Poland and Sweden, and envisages closer EU co-operation with the former six Soviet countries - Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and Belorussia. This program will start at the EU summit in Prague on May 7.

Within the program, negotiations will take place regarding cancellation of visa, introduction of the free trade zones and conclusion of strategic agreements with the participating countries. Small projects on the exchange of students, environmental protection, energy supply will be realized as well.

The unwillingness of both Turkey and Russia to join the EU program has grounds.

According to Markov, the distrust of Russia on the EU proposal is based on that the Eastern Partnership program is the "policy with the zero result". "This policy is of inappropriate choice "or- or" - Russia or the European Union," Russian MP Markov said.

The post-Soviet countries must have the opportunity to intensively to collaborate both with Russia and with the EU, he said. Eastern Partnership contradicts this and brings damage to the peoples of these countries, and Russia, interrupting the strategic co-operation of Russia with them," Markov said.

European expert on foreign policy, Eberhard Rhein, also considers that there is no reason why Russia should join Eastern Partnership program.

"Russia is an empire of its own. It had refused the join European Neighbour Policy in 2003. There is no reason why it should now," Rhein, Senior Adviser at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, told Trend via e-mail.

Although Russia is also the neighbor of the European Union, its relations with the EU are developing through strategic partnership that covers four of "the basic areas".

Turkey fears to accept the EU proposal in connection with the process of its integration into the Union.

"Turkey's participation in this project will become a step back in the negotiations on full-right membership to the EU," Turkish political scientist, Sinan Ulgen, told Trend in a telephone conversation.

The EU wants to use Turkey's potential, but it is limited with the framework of Eastern Partnership," he said.

"This project in no way must influence on Turkey's integration into the EU, since Turkey will not agree with this posing of the question," said Ulgen, Director of the Center for Economy and Foreign Policy in Istanbul.

However, Piotr Kaczynski, European expert on neighborhood policy, considers that Turkey's participation in Eastern Partnership program does not mean that the relations with Turkey would be limited to Eastern Partnership only.

"There is also the Black Sea Synergy project and, of course, the accession negotiations. This will not be stopped by the eventual Turkey's participation in the Eastern Partnership," Kaczynski, Research Fellow
at Centre for European Policy Studies, told Trend via e-mail.

Experts consider that Kushner's proposal to accept Turkey and Russia to Eastern Partnership is only one of the examples of weakening of the EU in the plan of the unity of its policy.

If Turkey and Russia join the Eastern Partnership program, it would significantly water down the Eastern Partnership program and undermine its credibility for those who are already in, Elena Gnedina, expert on European Neighborhood Policy, told Trend via e-mail.

"The Eastern Partnership program has been decoupled from European Neighborhood Policy, as there were too many countries and regions lumped together under one policy," Gnedina, expert at Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said.

The European Neighborhood Policy unites the direct neighbors of the EU - Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belorussia, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian territories, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. It was launched in 2004 to avoid new separating lines between Europe and its neighbors in order to strengthen prosperity, stability and security of all involved sides.

According to Gnedina, EU's decision to accept Russia and Turkey to the Eastern Partnership might be a sign of EU fatigue and EU's returning to its 'one-size-fits-all' approach and retracting from the neighborhood. This would be detrimental to the Eastern Partnership countries, especially Ukraine and Moldova, which want to become EU members one day, the expert said.

Russia and Turkey's participation is possible within the European Neighborhood Policy, said David Galbreath, European specialist on international.

"How Russia and Turkey would go about having an impact on this is hard to clarify since neither are in the EU and thus have no impact on discussions in the Commission or Parliament," Galbreath, Prof of Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen, told Trend via e-mail.

According to Galbreath, the clearest framework for cooperation would be greater consultation with the Russians and Turks over the European Neighborhood Policy in Eastern Europe, Caucuses and the Middle East.

E.Tariverdiyeva (Baku), R.Agayev (Moscow) contributed to the article.

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