Page 147 - SEVEN STEPS for COMPREHENDING the EUROPEAN UNION

146 / SEVEN STEPS FOR COMPREHENDING THE EUROPEAN UNION

throughout which the policy would be in effect. The policy, apart from
the European states, also encircled the non-European Mediterranean
countries: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco,
Tunisia and the state of Palestine.
It is interesting that the documents of 2003 do not mention the
South Caucasian states of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Only in the
ENP strategic document of May 12, 2004 did the European Commission
112
recommend the inclusion of these states into the policy. The
recommendation triggered a further expansion of the ENP towards the
South Caucasus.
Most importantly, the above-mentioned documents stressed that
the EU: Offers a means to reinforce relations between the EU and partner
countries which is distinct from the possibilities available to European
countries under Article 49 of the Treaty on the European Union.”

The Commission published the official document on the Eastern
Partnership Initiative on December 3, 2008. The document was
approved by the EU Council on March 19, 2009. In 2014, within the
framework of the EaP, the EU signed Association Agreements and Deep
and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas agreements (AA/DCFTAs) with
Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. The agreements, which truly brought
the relations between the parties to a qualitatively new level, aimed
at the political association and the economic integration of these
states with the European Union. However, the agreements, contrary to
the Stabilization and Association Agreements for the Western Balkan
countries, did not open EU membership perspectives for the signatory
states. Yet, the preamble of the Association Agreement with Georgia
makes a cautious geographic reference to Georgia’s European identity:
“Recognizing that Georgia, an Eastern European country....”. 113

It is noteworthy that the definition of the “European state” has
never been defined formally. Whether or not a state qualifies as a

112 Communication from the Commission - European Neighbourhood Policy - Strategy
paper
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=celex:52004DC0373
113 Association Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy
Community and their Member States, of the one part, and Georgia, of the other part
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:22014A0830(02)