FRANCE HAS NOT MADE FINAL DECISION ON EASTERN PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE YET

PanARMENIAN.Net
17.07.2008 18:12 GMT+04:00

France has not made a final decision on the Eastern Partnership
initiative yet, France’s Ambassador to Armenia Serge Smessov said in
an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net.

"The Action Plan opens wide possibilities to bring closer the EU and
South Caucasus, let it be modernization and democratization or economic
closing with a possibility of creation of a free trade zone," he said.

European Union leaders backed lately plans to offer closer ties to
the bloc’s eastern neighbors, partly to match a more ambitious project
for the Mediterranean region.

The Eastern Partnership plan is to offer new areas of cooperation
to Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and, subject to
domestic reforms, Belarus. But the plan is vague, with details only
to be worked out by March, 2009.

The EU’s eastern neighbors are already linked to Brussels through the
strictly bilateral European Neighborhood Policy, which offers countries
better trade access, economic assistance and visa liberalization as
they adapt to EU standards.