A Review of the Eastern Partnership after Ten Years: the Need to Reconsider its Efficacy

Abstract

This article analyses the effectiveness and prospects of the Eastern Partnership in the context of its ten-year implementation and the results of the Brussels Summit of 2017. The paper focuses on the current stage of the progress of the EaP partner states and the internal challenges of their development. A significant part of the article is devoted to Russia’s influence on the Europeanisation process of the Eastern European countries and the weak incentives from the EU towards these countries. The Normative Power concept was used to analyse the EU-Eastern European countries bi- and multilateral relations within the Eastern Partnership co-operation, taking into consideration that the EU norms and regulations’ implementation in Eastern Europe do not guarantee political normalisation in these countries. We conclude that after ten years of functioning, the Eastern Partnership has little capacity to influence political elite, domestic and regional processes in Eastern Europe, because depoliticised functional approach and the EU long-term incentives are not enough for the partners.