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After the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the EU policy towards the region has been mainly driven by the provision of assistance to the countries in order to support their transition process towards market economy and democratic societies. Through the Tacis (Technical Assistance to the Community of Independent States), the EU proved to be the major provider of technical assistance to the region. The EC bases its assistance on the Tacis Strategy Papers and Indicative Programmes which are prepared for almost each country.

While the Strategy Papers are established for a period of five to seven years, define the long-term objectives of cooperation and identify the specific fields of action: the Indicative Programmes are usually for three years and, based on the Strategy Papers, refer to concrete issues and expected results.

Conversely to the countries of Eastern Europe which face different challenges to transition so almost all of them have a Strategy Paper and an Indicative Programme, the Central Asian countries share one main ‘Regional’ Strategy Paper as they experience similar challenges for transition.

The whole set of bilateral relations between the EU and individual partner countries is ruled by the legal frameworks of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreements (PCAs) which aim at promoting the political, economic and democratic relations between the countries and the EU for a period of 10 years.

European Neighbourhood Policy

The enlargement to the 10 Central and eastern European countries contributed in boosting the need for restructuring the EU policy towards the ‘new neighbours’: Belarus , Ukraine , Moldova , Georgia , Armenia , Azerbaijan , Syria , Lebanon , Jordan , Israel , Palestinian Authority; Egypt , Libya , Tunisia , Algeria , Marocco.

The last Commission Communication represents the need for a stronger strategic approach to the whole region.Since then the EU developed tried to adopt a comprehensive approach which was marked by the establishment of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). In the Commission Communication (12.05.2004) reference is made to the new European Neighbourhood Instrument which will be in place from 2007 onwards and aims at providing financing assistance for cross-border projects and for projects involving several countries.

The ENP will be based upon the Strategy Papers where the EU and each of New Neighbours will agree on the priorities for financial assistance and through the Country Reports and on the other hand on the country reports providing up political, economic, social and institutional situation. Lately the European Commission has boosted the development of the ENP through the introduction of ad hoc Action Plans which will help in prioritizing the objectives of the Policy for each of the country involved. An appropriate Task Force has been set up by the European Commission in order to deal with the ENP and the ENI.