Encouraging the Prospect of EU Accession for Eastern Europe

Polish Foreign Secretary Radosław Sikorski will today be briefing his EU counterparts on his government's initiative for a partnership with Eastern European countries. Jerzy Haszczyński believes the aim must be EU accession for these countries. "To the countries of Eastern Europe, the Eastern Partnership is not a substitite for the prospect of proper membership of the EU - which is its potential weak point. Not even super-privileged status including visa-free travel and a free-trade zone, not even billions of euros that would flow into the East (and that have until now been the stuff of dreams) will replace it. We should not be trying to create a number-two EU, a quasi-EU for the poor and insecure, nor a pseudo-EU for countries which Moscow considers to be within its zone of influence. Let us hope that these fears - which have also been expressed by Ukrainian politicians, albeit in different words - do not prove to be justified. Let us hope that the Eastern Partnership will help Western Europe to gain confidence in its forgotten eastern half. And that Ukraine and other countries in the East (including Belarus) will in the near future be told that they likewise have a place in the union."

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