European leaders meet to discuss EU strategy towards Eastern European countries

European leaders are due to continue talks with former Soviet nations in Riga, Latvia today hoping to forge closer ties with Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. The talks will centre on how to adapt and develop the EU’s strategy towards the six post-Soviet countries.

Moscow has claimed that the Eastern Partnership is an attempt to surround Russia, but with the Ukraine crisis threatening to escalate once again, the EU insists that the grouping is more important than ever.

“Let me reply to those who claim that the Eastern Partnership is directed against Russia. It is not. The Eastern Partnership is not a beauty contest between Russia and the EU. But let me be frank, beauty does count,” said European Council President Donald Tusk.

Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are said to be keen to join the EU but Tusk said they shouldn’t expect a rapid entrance into the bloc.

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs saw the two-day summit as an opportunity to get input from regional countries over the current geopolitical standoff.

“Let me underline that EU member states as well as our partner member states will be free to raise issues. And I think that of course the situation in Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk agreement is going to be one of the subjects,” said Rinkēvičs.

Leaders hope to sign a joint declaration calling for the Ukraine crisis to be resolved, but insiders say it will likely be a compromise.

The eastern partnership was set up in 2009 in the aftermath of the Russia-Georgia war. Its stated goals are to produce a “democratic, secure and prosperous” eastern neighbourhood for Europe, but without explicitly offering these countries an EU membership perspective.