Protecting the European Choice

Europe’s Eastern Partnership has developed into crisis management and the EU must develop a new strategy towards Russia and the periphery, according to this new series of essays. As tensions around Russia continue to grow following the shooting down of a Malaysian civilian airliner, Ukraine and its fellow Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries are increasingly exposed in areas from energy to security.

The editor of the series of case studies on Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, ECFR senior policy fellow Andrew Wilson, argues that European Union policy towards the Eastern Partnership is 'proceeding on auto pilot' and that it needs to do 'more than simply protect the status quo if it is serious about maintaining the Eastern Partnership'. Wilson warns that the EU will 'have to be committed to spending a lot of blood and treasure to protect countries at the sharp end of Russian pressure'.

The four main chapters are:

1. Andrew Wilson: Ukraine under Poroshenko. Continuing challenges to European integration

2. Stanislav Secrieru: Can Moldova stay on the road to Europe?

3. Sergi Kapanadze: Georgia’s vulnerability to Russian pressure points

4. Richard Giragosian: Armenia’s Strategic U-Turn

• Primary Source

ESO: Key Source: Eastern Partnership http://www.europeansources.info/record/website-eastern-partnership/

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