PERSPECTIVE Reassessing the European Neighbourhood Policy The Eastern Dimension FELIX HETT, SARA KIKIĆ AND STEPHAN MEUSER(EDS.) June 2015 „ „ In March 2015, the EU launched a review process of the European Neighbourhood Policy(ENP). In the interest of supporting this urgently needed review, the Friedrich­Ebert-Stiftung requested six position papers from experts in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – the countries of the EU’s Eastern Partner­ship(EaP). „ „ This FES Perspective reveals the Eastern Partnership’s catch-22: The EU is regarded as a major – if not the sole – hope for bringing about sustainable democratic and economic change in EaP countries. However, there are considerable discrepancies between expectations about the EU’s role within the cooperation and its financial possibilities, as well as its willingness to commit. „ „ The country perspectives clearly show the importance of considering specific condi­tions and developments: In the past twelve years, the six EaP countries have devel­oped so differently that a ›one-size-fits-all‹-approach is no longer appropriate. The Eastern Partnership could continue to serve as an organizational umbrella with its own merits – especially the very helpful, civil-society multilateral dimension – while allowing for the partner countries’ real, and very different, ambitions. „ „ The ENP reassessment also reveals that the region’s political developments since early 2014, along with the newly constituted European Commission, make it the right time for a review. The region’s increasing complexities and needs require more supple, tailor-made approaches. Country-specific conditions and the various rela­tionships with the Russian Federation should be reflected through greater differen­tiation. The EU must urgently determine what it hopes to achieve with the Eastern Partnership: its local partners from politics and civil society have great expectations. This ambiguous state of affairs makes it time to push the ›reset button‹.