Unfinished business in Europe: Eastern Europe

The EUISS, in cooperation with the Aspen Institute Romania and with the generous funding of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania, organised a second workshop on Unfinished Business in Europe on 5 October in Bucharest. This workshop focused on the countries of the Eastern neighbourhood of the European Union, namely Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the three South Caucasian Republics: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Challenges such as state weakness, economic instability, corruption, transnational organised crime, unresolved conflicts etc. persist in this region. They are of common concern both for the European Union and for the US.

While the EU has considerably stepped up its engagement since the 2004 enlargement, the US under President Obama seems to be reassessing its priorities while putting a lot of emphasis on the reset policy towards Russia. Discussions in Bucharest focused on EU and US policy approaches, aiming at identifying differences and similarities and, ultimately, possibilities to coordinate and cooperate more closely and create synergies in this important region.