BRUSSELS: The enlarged European Union should create a ring of well-governed countries around its external borders, the European Commission said yesterday as it published a plan for improving relations with its new neighbours.
Promises of more aid and greater cross-border trade are offered as part of the commission's strategy to ensure that enlargement and the accompanying shift in the EU's external borders does not create fresh divisions with the new neighbours.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Mr Guenter Verheugen, said he wanted to develop new forms of co-operation and assistance with neighbouring countries in eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
The strategy published yesterday, which will be presented for approval by the Council of Ministers representing the 25 EU states, sets out a model for developing relations.
With each country, the EU aims to agree a set of priorities for action in fields ranging from political dialogue, trade and access to the EU's internal market, to justice and home affairs, energy, transport, environment, research and the information society. The Commission argues that the European neighbours which should come into the scope of the policy are Russia, with whom it is also working on a separate strategic partnership, Ukraine and Moldova.
Inclusion of Belarus is declared desirable but the Commission argues that under the current authoritarian regime it is not yet possible to offer full benefits.
Mr Verheugen does recommend the inclusion of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, arguing that the EU should take "a stronger and more active interest" in the southern Caucasus.
In the Mediterranean and Middle East, the neighbours are Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, plus Israel and the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The involvement of Libya is dependent on further negotiations.
The Commission highlights the help that neighbouring countries might provide in combating organised crime and corruption, money-laundering, trafficking in drugs and people, and in dealing with migration.
It also underlines the importance to the EU of ensuring a secure and safe supply of energy from the world's most important reserves of oil and natural gas in Russia, the Caspian basin, the Middle East and North Africa.
The EU should, the Commission argues, seek commitments from the neighbouring countries on the rule of law, good governance, respect for human rights, good neighbourly relations, and the principles of the market economy. It should also seek promises on the fight against terrorism and combating weapons of mass destruction.
The commission's proposal includes creating a new funding mechanism to channel EU money specifically into cross-border co-operation along the external border of the enlarged EU. The budget for 2007-2013 should include "a substantial increase", the Commission argues, on the current level of about €255 million in 2004-06 for such projects. The Commission is proposing €800 million per year on cross-border projects.
Four new EU members from central Europe yesterday voiced their support for other eastern European nations seeking EU membership. The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia said the bloc must not close its doors to states like Ukraine and Belarus and Balkan states Serbia and Montenegro. They also said it should remain open to Turkey.