Eastern Policy of the Enlarged European Union. Developing Relations with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

After enlargement, set for 2004, the European Union will face a completely new situation on its eastern borders that will require a new concept of its eastern activities: the elaboration of the EU’s new Eastern Policy. Due to the considerable number of special features - geographical location, close ties, direct risk factors etc. - the Visegrad countries will and should have a special interest in formulating the EU’s new Eastern Policy; they should in fact become it’s co-makers. The EU’s new Eastern Policy should differ fundamentally from the Union’s traditional eastern relations. First of all, its scope should not cover the entire CIS but should focus on some of the European successor states of the ex-Soviet Union, namely Belarus, Russia, the Ukraine (and Moldova after the accession of Romania). The exclusion of the Russian Federation from this policy and the elaboration and implementation of a separate policy towards her does not seem advisable. The new Eastern Policy should be an autonomous component and one of the most important elements of the Union’s overall foreign policy. (Executive Summary, fragment)