By Sergii Glebov

One of the fundamental features of the Eastern Partnership policy is the absence of a classical military component in its institutional architecture. Launched in 2009 as a component of the European Neighbourhood Policy, this initiative was designed to promote political association, economic integration, and the dissemination of European norms and values among six partner states: Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Belarus. Its conceptual foundation was based on the principles of "soft power" and conditionality, whereby the European Union used economic incentives, financial assistance, institutional cooperation, and normative influence to encourage democratic reforms. At the same time, issues of military security, collective defence, or defence planning were deliberately left outside the scope of the Eastern Partnership.

The article is based on a qualitative analysis of the interview reports prepared by the partner institutions of the Geo-Power-EU project (The project 101132692 — GEO-POWER-EU — HORIZON-CL2-2023-DEMOCRACY-01 – Empowering the Geopolitical EU in the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans) in order to provide an insight into the elites’ perception of the EU enlargement policy and the Eastern Partnership.

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