European Neighbourhood Policy
I) Latest developments
II) General context
The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was developed in 2004, with the aim of strengthening the prosperity, stability and security of the EU's neighbours, and avoiding the emergence of new dividing lines between the enlarged EU and its neighbours. The ENP was identified as a priority area in the Strategy for the External Dimension of Justice, Freedom and Security adopted in December 2005.
The EU offers our neighbours a privileged relationship, building upon common values (democracy and human rights, rule of law, good governance, market economy principles and sustainable development). The level of ambition of the relationship depends on how far these values are shared. The European Neighbourhood Policy applies to the EU's immediate neighbours by land or sea – Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. Although Russia is also a neighbour of the EU, our relations with Russia are developed through a Strategic Partnership, which includes a "common space on freedom, justice and security”.
The ENP builds upon existing agreements between the EU and the partner in question (e.g. Partnership and Cooperation Agreements, or Association Agreements in the framework of the Euro Mediterranean Partnership). This means that the ENP is not yet ‘activated’ for Belarus, Libya or Syria as no such Agreements are yet in force.
The Commission presented a Communication on 5 December 2007 entitled "A Strong European Neighbourhood policy", which concentrated on the actions needed and foreseen by the EU. One area mentioned was mobility in a secure environment. Progress has been made in this area with visa facilitation agreements in force with Ukraine and Moldova, a mobility partnership in place with Moldova and the launch of exploratory talks on an additional pilot mobility partnership with Georgia.
The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership -which has evolved into the Union for the Mediterranean - and the Eastern Partnership, have been established in order to give a differentiated approach to our Southern and Eastern neighbours.