EU SUMMIT TO FOCUS ON EASTERN PARTNERSHIP

PanARMENIAN.Net
11.12.2008 15:09 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The EU leaders are gathering for a summit on December
11 and 12 to discuss the Eastern Partnership plan developed by European
Commission members, Pravda.ru reports.

The Eastern Partnership will supersede and go beyond the EU’s current
European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) with the five countries: Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The door has also been left
open to a sixth country, Belarus.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he is convinced
that the Partnership would demonstrate the "power of soft power" and
acknowledged that the conflict in Georgia in August had influenced
the decision to launch the Partnership. He nonetheless insisted that
the proposal should not be seen as an attempt to establish a "sphere
of influence" vis-a-vis Russia. "We don’t need a new Cold War,"
he said. "We need cool heads."