The European Union and Central Asia

Alexander Warkotsch

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781138785168
• eBook ISBN: 9781135193003
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

In June 2007, the Council of the European Union (EU) adopted The EU in Central Asia: Strategy for a New Partnership, highlighting the growing importance of Central Asia to the EU. This book examines the EU's policy towards the five Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in light of this Strategy.

The analysis focuses on the EU's Central Asia Strategy and provides an evaluation of the EU's performance in meeting its policy goals in the region. It starts by looking at the EU as an actor, and discusses the general framework of EU-Central Asia cooperation. The book goes on to focus on the Strategy's general strategic directions and, in particular, its set of concrete policy commitments and questions whether these are adequately designed and implemented so they are able to contribute to regional security and stability. The book contributes to a better understanding for the pitfalls of overall stability in Central Asia, as well as studies on European Union and International relations.

Part I
The tool kit and framework of EU–Central Asian cooperation

1
The Central Asia Strategy

An exercise in EU foreign policy

Andrea Schmitz

Introduction

The EU Central Asia Strategy,¹ put forward by the German EU Presidency and adopted by the European Council in June 2007, has triggered a remarkable increase of activity. This activity, as well as the Strategy paper providing the guidelines for EU action in Central Asia, has been driven mainly by hopes to increase the visibility of the EU and enhance its political momentum in a region which until recently has been quite distant from Europe in terms of geography, history and culture.

The following chapter summarizes the EU’s main policy goals as outlined in the Strategy and analyses the EU’s enhanced efforts during the first two years of the Strategy’s implementation. Subsequently, light will be shed on some blind spots in both EU self evaluation and expert assessments, which as a rule ignore the internal dynamics of EU decision making and the limited scope for action in Third State contexts such as Central Asia.

Goals and instruments of cooperation

The Strategy for a New Partnership which defines the EU’s priorities for cooperation with each Central Asian state for the period 2007–2013 (Council 2007), has created high expectations among the European and, to a lesser degree, the Central Asian foreign policy communities. Developed under the German European Council Presidency in remarkably favourable circumstances (Schmitz 2008), the Strategy was presented in June 2007 in Brussels and subsequently adopted by the European Council. Conceived of as the third building block in a general reformulation of the EU’s relationship with its post-Soviet neighbours, alongside the intensification of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the extension of the partnership with Russia, the Strategy is of high symbolic importance. It underlines the EU’s intention to play a more active role in Central Asia than it did in the past, to deepen political dialogue with relevant actors and to coordinate its engagement more strongly at a political level.

The strategic importance of Central Asia has been growing significantly since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Above all, this is due to security concerns – both in terms of energy and military security. Central Asia is rich in hydrocarbon and mineral resources which increasingly play a role in the EU’s attempts to diversify its oil and gas supplies. The military-political significance of Central Asia, on the other hand, is the result of the War on Terror in Afghanistan and the subsequent need to establish reliable transport routes and supply facilities for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operating under NATO command.

Against this background, the maintenance of stability in Central Asia through the promotion of international law, the rule of law, human rights, democratic values and market economy forms the overarching goal of the EU’s policy in Central Asia (Council 2007: 4). The ‘new partnership’ envisaged by the Strategy seeks to reach this goal by focussing on economic and political modernisation and extension of regional cooperation, and to increase both the funds available and the coherence of their use. Based on the EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan² and in the Commission’s Assistance Strategies as of October 2002 and April 2007 (European Community 2007a and 2007b), the definition of priorities for engagement has largely been determined by the current programmes and projects administered by the Commission.

The Strategy for a New Partnership now forms the general framework for the EU’s relationship with Central Asia in all areas of cooperation. The Strategy defines seven priority areas for cooperation: 1) human rights, rule of law, good governance and democratisation; 2) youth and education; 3) economic development, trade and investment; 4) energy and transport; 5) environmental policies; 6) combating common threats; and 7) intercultural dialogue. While these areas are not explicitly prioritized among each other, a few initiatives are highlighted as being of special importance for the EU. Among these are the establishment of a regular regional political dialogue at Foreign Minister level, a regular energy dialogue with each of the Central Asian states and a regular, result-oriented human rights dialogue aiming at an enhanced cooperation on human rights and the implementation of initiatives to improve the human rights situation. A ‘Rule of Law Initiative’ is intended to support the Central Asian states in core legal reforms, including reform of the judiciary, and in drawing up effective legislation. In the field of education the Strategy highlights an ‘European Education Initiative’ to be set up and the development of an ‘e-silk-highway’ for the Central Asian states.

In all the seven fields of engagement listed in the Strategy, the EU aims at a balanced bilateral and regional approach. Thus, policy design as well as programme implementation are supposed to be tailored to the specific requirements and performance of each country. Despite the Strategy’s strong focus on region-wide approaches, which are regarded as essential for tackling common regional challenges such as organized crime, environmental hazards, water and border management, the bulk of the funds available until 2013 for the Strategy’s implementation is to be spent on bilateral programmes.

In order to improve the coherence and effectiveness of EU programmes, it is intended to strengthen coordination with Commission and Member States’ programmes and to make full use of existing cooperation frameworks such as the Baku Initiative which was put forward in 2004 with the objective to enhance cooperation in the energy sector between the EU and the Black Sea states as well as the Caspian and Central Asian states. Interaction with the international organisations and international financial institutions active in the region are to be strengthened. In addition, the Strategy envisages to enter into dialogue with the existing regional organisations in Central Asia and to establish ‘regular ad hoc contacts’ with the Eurasian Economic Community (EurasEC), the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and others. In order to enhance the EU’s presence and visibility in the region, EC Delegations are to be opened and upgraded in all of the Central Asian states.³

In sum, the Strategy for a New Partnership is a highly ambitious programme directed at the preservation of stability in Central Asia by socializing the states of the region into the European orbit through intensified cooperation in a broad spectrum of cooperation sectors.

Implementation activities

The adoption of the Strategy has triggered a remarkable increase of activity within the EU foreign policy community. The heightened attention by parliamentarians⁴ and the rising amount of consulting and monitoring initiatives launched by expert and watchdog groups⁵ added pressure on the EU to live up to the commitment expressed in the Strategy and to come up with visible projects. Pressure to succeed dictated both the choice of implementation activities and reporting thereupon. Not surprisingly, the Joint Progress Report by the European Council and the Commission, submitted to the Council in June 2008,⁶ is upbeat about the impact and the political momentum created by the Strategy and the subsequent implementation efforts. According to the report, ‘a new quality of cooperation’ has evolved between Central Asia and the EU since the adoption of the Strategy.

The report does not specify what exactly is understood by the term ‘new quality’, yet it seems to refer above all to the political dialogue which has been upgraded significantly in accordance with the Strategy’s objectives. Thus, the number of high-level meetings and visits has strongly increased during the two years after the Strategy was adopted. They include regional dialogue meetings at the Foreign Minister and senior officials level among the EU Troika and the five Central Asian states, as well as regular visits to all countries by the EU’s Special Representative for Central Asia. According to the Report, this heightened diplomatic interaction has contributed positively to the Strategy’s implementation.

On the bilateral level ‘priorities papers’ for the five Central Asian states were put forward which combine Commission and Member States’ programmes and serve as guidelines for the implementation of the Strategy according to the needs of each of the five countries.⁷ On the regional level and in line with the priorities set by the document, a European Rule of Law Initiative for Central Asia and a European Education Initiative for Central Asia have been developed. The choice of these two sectors was mainly determined by preceding EU and Member States’ activities in the relevant fields. Thus, the Rule of Law Initiative launched in November 2008 under the French European Council Presidency and jointly coordinated by France and Germany, is in fact an extension of preceding activities by Germany and the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional and legal matters, the Venice Commission. In the case of Germany such activities started as early as 2001. It is therefore not astonishing that this field of engagement has been placed high on the agenda within the EU Central Asia Strategy. The Rule of Law Initiative provides assistance and consultancy regarding the legal and judicial systems of Central Asia through expert exchange, training programmes and implementation support. However, the possible impact of the initiative is severely limited by the fragmented character of programmes and projects, and by their normative restrictions.⁸ The focus on commercial and trade law, and on economic-legal norms to foster the development of market economies is in fact consistent with Central Asian priorities, but at the same time it deprives the initiative of its underlying raison d’être: to promote the rule of law, good governance and human rights as an indivisible normative foundation of cooperation with Third States.

While the Rule of Law Initiative has been driven forward mainly by Germany and France, the Education Initiative is being administered by the Commission. Member States have been active in this field since the early 1990s. The Commission stepped in with Tempus Tacis in 1994 and with Erasmus Mundus in 2004 to facilitate university modernisation and internationalisation through training and upgrading of academic staff and institutional cooperation. EU assistance in this sector is directed towards making the higher education system compatible with the Bologna process. Within the Education Initiative the budgets for both Tempus Tacis and Erasmus Mundus have been doubled in order to enhance the visibility of the EU’s efforts in this field and to make it one of the ‘flagships’ of European engagement in the region.

The third of these ‘flagship’ issues is the Environment and Water Initiative which was launched in 2008 with a view to maintaining the political momentum created by the adoption of the Central Asia Strategy. Despite the high level of activity to accelerate progress towards the efficient and cooperative management of water resources and despite some success with regard to awareness raising among the EU’s dialogue partners in Central Asia, planning and implementation of projects within the Water Initiative are proceeding slowly, due to the highly conflictive nature of the issue (Sidorova 2008). After all, in November 2009, at the Third EU–Central Asia High Level Conference on Environment and Water in Rome, a Joint Communiqué was agreed upon and issued on behalf of the EU and the Central Asian states. It confirms the willingness of all parties to enhance cooperation on water issues using the already existing Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia Expert Working Group within the EU Water Initiative (EUWI-EECCA) as key implementation mechanism.⁹

With regard to the human rights dialogue, progress has been modest even though its importance has been emphasized in the Strategy. However, the EU can hardly be blamed. Ov...

Table of contents

• Routledge Advances in Central Asian Studies
• Contents
• Tables
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I The tool kit and framework of EU–Central Asian cooperation
• Part II Fields of cooperation
• Index