Reshaped Geopolitics and Increased Turmoil in the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood in 2020

In this input paper Cristina Gherasimov, an expert with The German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), analyses the unfolding challenges in the EaP countries and the European Union reaction to them.

Since the European Commission issued its Joint Communication on the post-2020 Eastern Partnership (EaP) policy in March 2020, the region has been steeped in turmoil, which is reshaping the political and geopolitical environment for the EaP countries and the EU.

While the turbulences in the EaP countries continue to shake the public’s trust in state institutions and domestic elites, the EU, despite an unprecedented assistance package ahead of the EaP summit of June 2020, is currently seen as mostly absent or playing a marginal role in response to events on the ground, and especially to challenges in the field of security, says Cristina Gherasimov in her input paper. She suggests that the EU should use the leverage and soft power that it has in countries like Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, to support further democratisation and transformation in the region.

The paper was produced for a workshop organised by the EU-funded Network of Think Tanks on the Eastern Partnership.