“The Eastern Partnership is not finished. It still exists, but its shape has changed — and, obviously, it has not functioned as many in the EU would have hoped,” said the policy analyst. “It is composed of six countries that are all going in different directions and have different sorts of arrangements with the EU. One reason for the stalemate is Russia’s reaction. I wouldn’t say the Partnership is a complete failure. I still think the political will to try and make it functional will prevail,” she noted.
Ukraine and Moldova have a common problem with cross-border criminality and they also cooperate on the Transnistria conflict. They have trade and political ties, Amanda Paul added.
“Of course, when you go to the South Caucasus it is a different scenario because it’s a fragmented region — even more fragmented as a consequence of the Eastern Partnership. It is mainly because of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Armenia and Azerbaijan don’t communicate at all, which also makes things difficult for Georgia. However, Belarus has relations with all Partnership countries, as far as I know.
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