EU summit to focus on Eastern Partnership

PanARMENIAN.Net - The EU leaders are gathering for a summit on December 11 and 12 to discuss the Eastern Partnership plan developed by European Commission members, Pravda.ru reports.



The Eastern Partnership will supersede and go beyond the EU's current European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) with the five countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The door has also been left open to a sixth country, Belarus.



European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he is convinced that the Partnership would demonstrate the "power of soft power" and acknowledged that the conflict in Georgia in August had influenced the decision to launch the Partnership. He nonetheless insisted that the proposal should not be seen as an attempt to establish a "sphere of

influence" vis-a-vis Russia. "We don't need a new Cold War," he said. "We need cool heads."