Europe faces new 'Eastern Front'

  • 2007-09-03
  • From wire reports

LET'S BE NEIGHBORLY: Barroso denied that in developing its Neighbourhood Policy, the EU risks disaffecting its Eastern members

BRUSSELS - Newcomers to the European Union from Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, are plotting to shift the organization's focus away from its traditonal Mediterranean heartland, according to reports.

Foreign ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and the three Baltic states met counterparts from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan Sep. 02 on the eve of a major conference on the EU's European Neighbourhood Policy.

"The idea is to create a joint front for Monday's meeting to give more emphasis to the EU's eastern policy," Reuters reported a Lithuanian diplomat as saying. "The south has its Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and nothing like that exists for the east."

Central European countries that joined the EU in 2004 believe the old members often pay more attention to countries bordering the EU in the Middle East and North Africa at the expense of eastern member states. That translates into less EU aid for the eastern region.

Portugal, which currently holds the EU presidency, has said the EU's attention should shift southwards after completing eastern enlargement

"Since 9/11, the strategic environment has changed and the EU has to be focused on new threats and challenges. We need to look to the Mediterranean, to the south," Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said shortly before assuming the presidency in May.

In his keynote address to the conference Sep. 3, President of the Euopean Commission Jose Manuel Barroso referred to the possibility of a polarised Europe and made an effort to prevent regional interests overtaking the debate, saying:

"Why shouldn't countries on the Black Sea, and countries on the Mediterranean, have something to gain from talking to each other about maritime safety, for example?"