12 Facts About Eastern Partnership

Eastern Partnership is a joint initiative of the European External Action Service of the European Union together with the EU, its member states, and six Eastern European partners governing the EU's relationship with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The Eastern Partnership was inaugurated by the European Union in Prague, Czech Republic on 7 May 2009.

Eastern Partnership was established as a specific Eastern dimension of the European Neighborhood Policy, which contains both a bilateral and multilateral track.

Meanwhile, Germany, France, and others were not happy with the possibility that the Eastern Partnership could be seen as a stepping stone to membership, while Poland and other Eastern states have explicitly welcomed this effect.

Eastern Partnership was officially launched in May 2009 when the Czech Republic invited the leaders of the six members of the initiative.

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Eastern Partnership is a forum aiming to improve the political and economic trade-relations of the six Post-Soviet states of "strategic importance" – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine with the European Union.

Key focus of the EU engagement within the Eastern Partnership includes the achievement of tangible results for the citizens in the partner countries.

Joint working document "Eastern Partnership – focusing on key priorities and deliverables" drafted by the Commission and EEAS details the objectives across the five priority areas of cooperation agreed at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga in 2015:.

The funds will be used for three main purposes: Comprehensive Institution Building programmes, aimed at supporting reforms ; Pilot regional development programmes, aimed at addressing regional economic and social disparities ; and Implementation of the Eastern Partnership, focusing on democracy, governance and stability, economic integration and convergence with EU policies, energy security, and contacts between people with the aim of bringing the partners closer to the EU .

Yet, the Eastern Partnership documents do not confirm such priorities as political and economic integration or lifting visas.

Russia has expressed strong concerns over the Eastern Partnership, seeing it as an attempt to expand the European Union's "sphere of influence".

In terms of its past advocacy work, the Forum has successfully secured greater funding for civil society in the Eastern Partnership and contributed to the design of the EU's roadmap for the Eastern Partnership Vilnius Summit in 2013.