Word: liberty
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...they may have had their doubts about EaP even before that. Fabio Liberti, a European affairs and security expert with the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris, notes that the calls to push the E.U.'s influence eastward was devised by certain member states - above all Poland and Sweden - to counterbalance the Mediterranean Union that Sarkozy initiated last year to reach out to Europe's southern neighbors. Even that, Liberti says, was fueled by France, Italy, Spain and Greece trying to shift the E.U.'s center of gravity back towards the middle of the continent after the fall...
...became a non-event, because an initiative that corresponded to the very logic and mission of the European Union itself became undermined by a lot of political factors," says Liberti. "Just as people now tend to view E.U. enlargement as a mistake - rather than examine the errors made in managing it - leaders have gotten shy about the Eastern Partnerships over how it might look, rather than what it will...
...However, Liberti notes that efforts to placate Moscow may only go so far - especially given the energy stakes the EaP involves. He says repeated moves by the Kremlin to choke off gas supplies pumped to Europe via the Ukraine have left many E.U. leaders determined to wean themselves off of their Russian gas dependency. For that reason, Liberti says, developing and exporting new energy resources for EaP signatories like Azerbaijan remains high a priority, along with building a new pipeline to Europe via central Asia that bypasses Russia completely...
...Europe is in this schizophrenic mode in which we're trying to create partnerships without creating them too much, and trying to undermine Russian influence without challenging Russia," Liberti notes. "At the same time, Germany and Italy sign long-term bilateral gas contracts with Russia that increase their dependency...
...Liberti says Putin's use of energy as a political tool - and his recent defiance of Europe and the rest of the world in Russia's military clash with Georgia - may signal that the Russian leader believes he risks little more than short-term trouble in making internationally unpopular moves that serve his interests. Liberti also suggests that the winter freeze and the assumption of the E.U. presidency by the Czech Republic, an ex-Soviet satellite, may have added to Putin's motivations. "Putin is reminding Europe [that] Russia's a force to be reckoned with, and that its position...