The whole idea behind the launch of the European Neighbourhood Policy was to secure the near environment on the EU’s border perimeter after the enlargement wave in 2004.
Hennadiy Maksak, the Head of the Board, Foregn Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”, for UA:Ukraine Analytica
Neighbouring states to the East and South, which differed drastically in terms of their geographical and historical background, political system and level of democracy have been united in “one fits all” policy with the declared aim to “foster stability, security and prosperity” in the region. As a result of a more serious division among countries in the European Union over participants of the ENP, a new Poland-Sweden initiative “Eastern Partnership” started as the EU policy in 2009. Despite some positive changes in partner-countries as well as on a bilateral track with Brussels, Eastern Partnership failed to effectively address the challenges on the ground. The only possible way to correct the Eastern Partnership policy is to take into account the present miscalculations in relations with Russia and address precisely the needs of each partner. At the moment, the preliminary results of the ENP revision seem to have difficulties in passing the Ukrainian test.
The absence of hard security assurances to the partner countries within the framework of the ENP or under other EU’s policies provoked Russia to launch a hybrid war in Ukraine in 2014