FIVE YEARS OF EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY: MORE TRADE, MORE AID, MORE PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE CONTACTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 12, 2010 – 21:11 AMT 16:11 GMT
For five years, the European Union has been delivering more trade,
more aid, more people-to-people contacts and far deeper co-operation
between the EU and its neighbours on the whole range of their economic,
political and sectoral reforms. Partnership has significantly
developed in areas like transport, energy, environment and climate
change, research, health and education. This has been backed up with
an increase in the current Financial Framework by 32% and will reach
over EUR 2 billion annually in 2013, Delegation of the European Union
to Armenia reported.
"The European Neighbourhood Policy is a success story with many
examples of concrete achievements on the ground," commented Catherine
Ashton, Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative of
the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. "But there is a lot
more we can and should do to make our part of the world more secure,
more stable and more prosperous. In a globalized world, as European
and Mediterranean countries, we need to help each other face the
economic crisis. We need to work together to confront the new threats
and challenges of our time, such as international terrorism, human
trafficking and cross-border organised crime. We need to co-operate to
solve the disputes and conflicts that still hold parts of our region
back, and deny many ordinary people the benefits of globalisation. We
want our neighbours to join our efforts to bring peace and security
to other parts of the world who are less fortunate than we are. And
as a Union built on shared values, we want our neighbours to benefit
from the stability and prosperity that come with open and democratic
society and the rule of law. This ambitious agenda is a key priority
for me as we press ahead with the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty
and the establishment of the External Action Service. Our friends
in our European and Mediterranean neighbourhood will be among the
first to benefit from a more active, more coherent and more effective
European foreign policy."
Stefan Fule, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood
Policy, added: "Further strengthening the ENP is no less than an
investment in the EU’s own stability and prosperity – and this must
be reflected in our offer to our partners. The ENP is a win-win game:
the higher our partners’ reform ambitions, the stronger our response.
Economic reforms have progressed remarkably across our neighbourhood,
both East and South. What is essential for the future is to go up
a gear on democratic and political reforms, where progress has been
real but generally slower."