The EU Commissioner for enlargement, Guenter Verheugen, recently presented a strategic document of the Commission on the future post-enlargement policy towards EU neighbouring countries: countries that will be debarred from directly joining the Union. The document proposes two main geo-political axes on which to concentrate European action in the years ahead: on the one hand, the so-called “Mediterranean neighbour” countries that comprise all the states that participate in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Palestinian Authority); on the other, the far East of the European continent, from Russia to the states of the Caucasus (Georgia, Azerbaijian, Armenia, Ukraine, Moldavia and Belarus). During the press conference presenting the document, Commissioner Verheugen stressed that the neighbourhood policy will be based on the “sharing of some fundamental principles such as market economy, sustainable development, respect for democracy and human rights, the fight against terrorism and the banning of weapons of mass destruction”.
