Bulgaria, Foreign Minister Roumyana Zheleva told a discussion in Sofia on European Neighbourhood Policy, stands ready to be an active player in the overall European Union policy approach in the region made up by the bloc’s six eastern neighbours.

The opening speaker at the discussion, hosted by the Foreign Ministry and the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Zheleva offered an optimistic view of the EU’s policy approach towards these countries – Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

She referred to the Lisbon Treaty – at the hour she was speaking, on November 3, the Czech constitutional court was giving its stamp of approval to the treaty – as opening the way for the EU to be a truly global player for stability and progress throughout the world, while adding that the EU was "most needed in its immediate neighbourhood".

The EU’s Eastern Partnership with the six countries, proposed in May 2008 and inaugurated a year later, is intended in the EU’s words to "promote democracy and good governance; strengthen energy security; promote sector reform and environment protection; encourage people-to-people contacts; support economic and social development; and offer additional funding for projects to reduce socio-economic imbalances and increase stability".

The Eastern Partnership, Zheleva said, would help lay the foundation for a more secure and prosperous environment in these countries, to the benefit of the region and the EU.
Before its EU accession, Bulgaria had benefited from similar support and "now it is our turn" to support and pass on its expertise, she said.

Zheleva also referred to the Black Sea Economic Co-operation and the Black Sea Synergy, the latter designed by the EU to carry out initiatives in areas including transport, energy, the environment, maritime management, fisheries, migration, and the fight against organised crime, the information society and cultural co-operation, and involving Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine.

There is an overlap in this membership with the Black Sea Co-operation, which was founded in 1992 and includes Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. Bulgaria took over the chairmanship on November 1 and will hold it until June 2010, and Zheleva said that Sofia intended to use this position as leverage to bolster the Black Sea Synergy and Eastern Partnership.

Bulgaria also intended to "draw the EU’s attention" to the Black Sea region.

She said that it was in the best interests of the countries of the Black Sea region to be surrounded by stable neighbours, and the EU could encourage positive reforms through measures such as free trade agreements and visa facilitation.

However, from various participants in the discussion, it became clear that shortcomings and questions remained about the European Neighbourhood Policy, one being the succession of "rebranding" of this policy.

Nicu Popescu, a policy fellow at ECFR who with colleague Andrew Wilson authored a report on "The limits of enlargement-lite" said that the EU was still looking for a model to make its neighbourhood policy more effective.

Some problems face the EU in seeking to export its initiatives including the "competitive" nature of the neighbourhood, in effect meaning a contest for influence with Russia; Popescu said, while adding that the EU should also support strategic partnerships with Russia, where possible.

Further, Russia was using various political, economic and social means to promote itself in the region, from "hard power" – a military presence – to "soft power", meaning everything from existing factors such as Soviet nostalgia, the Russian Orthodox Church, to new ones, such as Russian media influence in the region, and Russian-backed NGOs and political parties. At the same time, the EU was "under-investing" in its own soft power in the region, for example through the relatively low number of visits to the six countries by EU foreign policy leaders.

The countries also liked to benefit from EU – Russia competition, seeking to play them off against each other and then not deliver on commitments.

Popescu said that governments in the region also were not in the same position as those of Central Europe in the 1990s, seeking to implement reforms, because they had to behave like firefighters, dealing with immediate crises. The EU also had proven to be bad at reacting swiftly to crises in the region.

A core problem was spelt out in a comment by Ivailo Kalfin, a socialist MEP for Bulgaria and a former foreign minister. There was a lack of clarity, he said, about the ultimate goal of the neighbourhood policy – whether it was to bring the six countries in the Eastern Partnership into the EU in the long-term, or simply to stabilise and support them; or some other variation on these. Within this, there were issues such as how to treat Belarus (which, while Kalfin did not spell this out, is seen as far removed from democratic).

On the ultimate goal of the neighbourhood policy, Kalfin said: "If you ask, there is no answer. Or, in fact, several different answers".

Popescu drew a contrast between the approaches that drove the policies of Russia and of the EU: Moscow pursued foreign policy in its own interest, while the EU tended to view its engagement with the region as a philanthropic project, rather than one where it should be pursuing goals in its own interests.