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Into EurAsia Monitoring the EU's Central Asia Strategy -Summary

24/02/2010 By Michael Emerson

The EU’s Central Asia strategy was introduced in 2007 in order to upgrade the EU’s cooperation with the five states of the region. The political context at that time was dominated by concerns in the EU over energy security and the war in Afghanistan. The strategy took a wide and comprehensive approach however, identifying a considerable number of priority actions: political dialogue, human rights and the rule of law, education, economic development, energy and transport links, environmental sustainability and water, common threats such as drug trafficking, etc.

This approach has led to engagement in many dialogue procedures and projects. While there has been an undoubted increase in the level of activity, the extensiveness of the agenda and relatively low level of resources committed to the strategy entails a risk that the whole process may not have real impact and credibility. This risk is quite visible in most chapters of the strategy. For the time being it is felt by EU officials that these are still early days, that results take time, and there has to be patience to deepen trust and experience in the region. Up to a point this may be valid. Yet there is a manifest need to sharpen the real operational objectives and raise the level of operations to the point of being demonstrably effective.

This policy brief serves as a summary of the EUCAM report Into EurAsia – Monitoring the EU’s Central Asia Strategy (Michael Emerson, Jos Boonstra, Nafisa Hasanova, Marlene Laruelle, Sebastien Peyrouse, 2010). The brief is available in English and Russian at www.eucentralasia.eu; in English at www.ceps.eu; and in English and Spanish at www.fride.org.

See Final Report

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Keywords

EU Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan

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Bio author: Michael Emerson

Michael Emerson is Associate Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) since 1998, and program director for Wider Europe; he participated in successive projects on the Balkans, Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Cyprus, Middle East, conflict resolution, democracy promotion, Europe's strategic security, political Islam and the crisis of multi-culturalism within the EU.