Abstract Cieślińska

The Eastern Dimension of European Neighborhood Policy — the Role of German,  Czech and Polish Presidencies

Joanna Cieślińska

Abstract: The European Neighborhood Policy is the youngest of the EU common policies. It is meant to cover its eastern and southern neighbors and result in the creation around of the EU of a so-called ring of friends — consisting of stable, prosperous and democratic neighbors. One of the purposes of the ENP is helping the governments of neighboring countries in the process of their political and economical reforms by offering them the benefits of closer relationship with the EU and its member states. The ENP replaces a one-size-fi ts-all approach in the EU’s external relations by a flexible and differentiated approach that takes into consideration the specific needs, potential, expectations and possibilities of neighboring countries. Most of the EU member states have the economical, political and social relations with the neighboring countries. With that in mind, they put stress on developing different dimensions of the European Neighborhood Policy. In the last few years the competition between the eastern and southern dimensions of the ENP has become clearly visible, involving the main actors on the European political stage.

Keywords: European Neighborhood Policy, Eastern Partnership, EU external relations