Eastern Cooperation
So close, yet so far Łukasz Adamski, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) talks about the observance of human rights in Belarus, Ukraine and other countries of the Eastern Partnership, and about how to support the processes of democratization in the countries to the east of the European Union.
Modernization Eastern Partnership (EaP) is a programme of economic and political approximation of the countries of the eastern bloc with the European Union. It is also a support programme for the comprehensively understood modernization of these countries. It is not just about economic modernization, or modernization of legal institutions and the political system. What is needed is the modernization of the observance of
human rights, and in this respect we have been observing a regress in the countries of Eastern Partnership. Even Ukraine, which used to be the “top student”, fell in the Freedom House ranking to the category of half-free countries. In the same category are Moldova, Georgia and Armenia. While Azerbaijan and, even to a greater extent, Belarus are deprived of freedom. Another important issue is the level of law abiding, measured by the
indicators of corruption. In the EU, bribery is a kind of “payment” to the officials for taking the risk to break the law in the interest of the one who gives the bribe. In EaP countries, a bribe is paid to the officials to undertake their official duties. The level of corruption is enormous. With the exception of Georgia, where according to research by Transparency International, it is at a level close to Italy’s. The level of perception of corruption in Georgia is smaller than in Bulgaria and Romania belonging to the EU. Yet in other EaP countries corruption is very severe. It manifests itself in almost every aspect of life and affects not only the morale of the societies, but also the investment climate.
So close, yet so far In the cultural aspect, the reconstruction of ties between the region and Central and Western Europe is needed. In the case of Southern Caucasus countries, which were first called Europe in the declaration of Eastern ADVERTISEMENT
7-8 /2011 :: polish market :: 77