The EU needs to have a very clear and simple understanding of the strategic goals of its neighborhood policy: it is better for the EU to export stability into those regions, than to import instability from them. When discussing about strategic autonomy of the EU, first of all we need to understand that EU’s strategic autonomy starts with a strategic responsibility for development and stability in the EU’s neighborhood. Development and stability in EU neighborhood can be achieved only if there is a possibility for the region to integrate itself with the EU. Since 1990, there isn’t a single example of a post-communist and post-totalitarian country in EU’s neighborhood, which was able to create its stability and prosperity on its own, without an integration towards the EU.

Read more in: The Future of EAP Policy (Policy paper for Stockholm Center of Eastern Europe Studies) by Andrius Kubilius