"Recent statements by the European Union display a more active policy in the South Caucasus. The European Union has the reputation of an "honest broker" and as having a wide scope of instruments for achieving peace and stability. Conversion of statements into an active security policy could be established by forming a military mission to be deployed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, not to replace the Russian peacekeepers, but as an additional asset to promote stability and reconstruction. Such a mission would be beneficial for the stature of the European Union, to prove that it is capable of conducting crisis management missions. Furthermore, this would adhere to the call of the Georgian government to introduce Western peacekeepers in the disputed areas," says the report titled ''Current Geostrategy in the South Caucasus'' issued by Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Marcel de Haas, the Senior Research Fellow on military doctrine, strategy, and security policy of NATO, EU, Russia and CIS, at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael in The Hague.

Russia may oppose a competitive peacekeeping force, but it will have a difficult time openly disapproving of such an EU mission since it wants to maintain good relations with the European body and also because it has no grounds to feel threatened by EU peacekeepers. A possible EU military mission to the separatist areas should be part of a larger EU operation, using its social and economic instruments as well for stability and reconstruction. Such an approach would strengthen a normal economic build-up and thus be detrimental toward the largely illegal economic structures of the current leadership of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. With such an encompassing program, the separatist regions could gradually develop into stable societies, which would also be beneficial for their position toward the Georgian government.

Likewise, taking into account the fact that the OSCE's long-time negotiations to reach a settlement on Nagorno Karabakh have been in vain, the European Union could also pursue an encompassing action program on this conflict. Here, as well, the deployment of an EU military mission, together with social and economic measures to encourage development of state and society, could bring a political solution closer. Moreover, a stabilized South Caucasus would also be advantageous for structural energy supplies from Central Asia via the South Caucasus to Europe. Therefore, political and economic objectives could be united," the report says.