"The most powerful European response to the Russian invasion will be the support for free, democratic states in Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and beyond, with strong regional and local authorities, economically and culturally vibrant cities and societies committed to European values." Alin Nica, President of Timiș County Council and CoR rapporteur on 'The Future of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) from a local and regional perspective' made these remarks during a CoR CIVEX Commission meeting.
The CoR rapporteur highlighted that "The Eastern Partnership needs to change and respond proactively to the new realities by supporting all partner countries in their aspirations, as well as promote stronger involvement of regional and local authorities when designing cooperation priorities with territorial impact.
The opinion favours more flexibility and differentiation in both the EaP's bilateral and multilateral approaches in order to match the different priorities of each partner. It also underlines a strong need to strengthen the administrative capacity of local and regional authorities in the Eastern Partnership and for that reason recommends implementing without further delay the project for Academy for Local and Regional Public Administration in the EaP. This will promote transparency and good governance practices, it will help to fight corruption, and assist partners in conducting decentralisation reforms.
Christina Johannesson, Sweden's ambassador for the Eastern Partnership, spoke about the need to strengthen the EaP in order to adapt to the new challenges that Europe is facing due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Lawrence Meredith, director in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations welcomed the importance and the good timing of the EPP-CoR opinion and highlighted that the benefits of the EU can only be felt across the candidate countries if local and regional authorities are engaged in the accession process.
Background information
The Eastern Partnership (EaP) was launched in 2009, as a joint initiative between the European Union, the EU Member States and their Eastern European and South Caucasus partners. Today, 13 years after its launch, the Partnership has been fundamentally shaken by the geo-political turmoil caused by the Russian war on Ukraine. Brining the EaP back on track will require a redefinition of its policy objectives and its multilateral architecture.
