Building a democratic, prosperous and stable Eastern partnership

(A joint op-ed from President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy)

Tomorrow the leaders of the European Union will gather with colleagues from Eastern Europe in the beautiful Lithuanian capital of Vilnius where the third Eastern Partnership Summit is to be held. The Vilnius Summit will be a testimony of our joint resolve to bring the wider European continent closer together around common values and objectives.

The Eastern Partnership is the European Union's main policy instrument to advance closer political association and economic integration in our Eastern neighbourhood. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine participate. 

Our objective is to work together with our partners in the region to build - step by step - a democratic, prosperous and stable neighbourhood based on the rule of law. A democratic neighbourhood where multi-party systems and fundamental freedoms are uphold, where sovereignty is respected, where the motto is cooperation and not competition. A prosperous neighbourhood, where more jobs and business opportunities are created benefitting both the European Union and our partners' business operators alike, where transport links are reinforced as well as travel and student exchanges. A stable neighbourhood where the risk of open conflict is disappearing and migration pressures are reduced as people feel less forced to seek a better life outside their own countries.

Vilnius will mark the end of the first decade of the Union's neighbourhood policy and the first four years since the launch of the Eastern Partnership in Prague in 2009. We continue to work on the ambitious Association Agreements including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas with partners meeting the benchmarks and steps towards facilitating and liberalising travelling between the Union and the region.

These agreements will not only offer access to the world's biggest market of over half a billion people, but also assistance to our partners to reform and re-shape their economies and modernise their societies.

The Summit is set to achieve substantial progress for Georgia and Moldova with which we recently concluded the negotiations and will be able to initial our agreements. 

Undoubtedly, a lot of focus will be on Ukraine with which we concluded negotiations and initialled the Association Agreement including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade area. Our offer of signing at Vilnius is still on the table. This requires the necessary political will by the Ukrainian leadership, determined action and tangible progress on the conditions set out in December 2012. We are convinced that signing the Agreement provides the best possible support for Ukraine's economic situation, reform course and modernisation in view of building a prosperous and stable future for all Ukrainians. Ukrainian citizens have again shown these last days that they fully understand and embrace the historic nature of the European association. 

Modernising countries, expanding markets and extending free trade are developments from which everyone eventually stands to benefit in a global economy. Stronger relations with the European Union do not come at the expense of relations between our Eastern partners and their other neighbours, such as Russia. Nobody is asking our partners to renounce their relations or free trade agreements with Russia.  The Eastern Partnership is conceived as a win-win where we all stand to gain. We are offering an attractive strategic vision - and the means to achieve that vision - for our Eastern European neighbours and the region as a whole. But it is our partner's sovereign choice – a choice that should be free of external pressure and made in the interest of their own citizens - to take up the EU offer, which includes living up to necessary values and standards. The European Union will remain more open and more supportive to those who are willing to engage in reforms and modernisation.

A major transformation has taken place on the European Union's borders. In the last few years the European Union became the biggest trading partner and source of investments, a political presence and a reliable partner to most of our Eastern neighbours. And these are still just the first steps. For ultimately Europe and the Eastern partners can only flourish as an integrated continent without dividing lines.