Visa row, frozen conflicts overshadow EU's Eastern plans

Prague - Conflicts between former Soviet states in eastern Europe and a row over their demand for visa-free access to the European Union overshadowed preparations on Wednesday for a summit between the EU and its eastern neighbours. On Thursday, the EU is set to launch an 'Eastern Partnership' with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine at a high- level meeting in Prague. But just one day before the talks, participants were still struggling to agree a joint political declaration, as rows over visa freedom, frozen conflicts and EU membership beset negotiations. The latest draft of the declaration, seen by the German Press Agency dpa, says that the bloc will gradually make it easier for the citizens of partner countries to obtain visas, but only take 'gradual steps ... on a case-by-case basis' towards abolishing visas entirely. That has led to 'enormous pressure' from partner countries, who want a promise of visa abolition, diplomatic sources told dpa. At the same time, the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh threatens to weaken the partnership, which was intended to boost cooperation between the partner states. Azerbaijan has already forced the EU to drop a statement that partners 'believe the partnership could help develop closer ties' between them, and opposes any reference to cooperation between the six former-Soviet states, diplomatic sources said. Both Azerbaijan and Georgia are also pushing for the declaration to make explicit the EU's support for their territorial integrity and sovereignty, following Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the bloody Russian-backed secession of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August. But the EU has so far rejected that call, which could antagonize both Armenia and Russia. The latter is not part of the Eastern Partnership, and has already warned that it sees the initiative as a potential threat to its own long-term security. And 'many' of the partners stress that their membership of the partnership is less important than their bilateral relationship with the EU, diplomats say. Their differences have already led the EU to sink five proposed 'flagship initiatives' for the partnership. The EU's executive, the European Commission, originally proposed that the partnership should launch cooperation projects on border management, support for small businesses, links between electricity grids, oil and gas pipelines, and disaster relief. But disagreements among the six partners and with the EU mean that 'consensus on the names of the flagship projects was impossible to reach,' EU sources said. Instead, the draft declaration simply states that participants 'support the launching of flagship initiatives ... and are looking forward to an early discussion' of them. EU states, in turn, struck from the draft a reference to the six as 'European states,' in a bid to stop them pushing to join the EU. Under the EU's founding treaty, any 'European state' can apply to join the bloc, making the term highly politically sensitive. The draft also stresses that membership of the partnership is 'without prejudice' to partners' EU accession hopes.