Between a rock and a hard place: the EU and the Eastern Partnership after the 2017 Brussels Summit. College of European Policy Brief #5.18, April 2018

> The November 2017 Eastern Partnership (EaP) summit in Brussels underscored the EU’s recent shift towards focusing mainly on politically nonsensitive sector-specific cooperation in its Eastern neighbourhood. This new approach results from the absence of political and economic reforms and unfavourable geopolitical conditions in the region. > Sobering and unambitious as it may seem, the EU’s new EaP policy might offer unsuspected potentialities, achieve stronger sectoral links and have an actual impact on people’s daily lives while maintaining a geopolitical balance. > At the same time, the focus on sector-specific cooperation might slow down the EU-inspired transformation process and diminish the EU’s role as a key player in EaP countries. > Taking into consideration the limitations of functional cooperation and its inability to confront the considerably disruptive challenges on the ground, this new approach cannot be but temporary in nature. > Currently stuck between a rock and a hard place, the EU will eventually have to take a clearer stance regarding the future of the EaP. Only relying on horizontal technical ‘network governance’ as a tool for rule transfer will not substantially advance the situation in the Eastern neighbourhood. In the long run, the challenges EaP countries are faced with require a well-structured and politically sustainable strategy