BRUSSELS: Seeking to extend its reach into Russia's backyard, the European Union on Wednesday proposed deeper ties with six former Soviet nations, even suggesting that it could embrace Belarus, often described as the continent's last dictatorship.
Four months after the Caucasus exploded into conflict, and with growing concern over energy supplies from Russia to the EU, nations on the bloc's eastern flank have emerged as a new priority.
On Wednesday the European Commission sought to tempt them with offers of free trade deals, closer energy ties, easier access to visas and financial assistance programs worth a total of €600 million, or $760 million, over two years.
The proposed new "Eastern Partnership" with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus is the boldest outreach to ex-Communist nations since the EU expanded in 2004 and 2007 to embrace the Baltics and all the former Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe. Yet it will disappoint Ukraine, a country considerably bigger than France, and much smaller Moldova for holding out no firm prospect of EU membership.
The new group, which is likely to meet in a Prague summit next spring, began life earlier this year because of pressure to counterbalance efforts by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to forge closer links with and between Europe's southern neighbors.
But the plan assumed greater importance after the fighting in Georgia in August, which underlined the power of a resurgent Russia and highlighted the risk of political instability in the east.
Outlining the proposal, José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, denied suggestions that the EU was seeking to establish itself as an alternative power center to Moscow.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/03/europe/union.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert
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