Brussels urges more financial aid for ex-Soviet states

BRUSSELS: The European Commission on Monday called for increased European financial aid to ailing former Soviet states, despite the insistence of some EU members that the Mediterannean region should continue to receive greater help.

“We have a crucial strategic interest in their (Eastern Europe’s) economy and political stability,” EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said on the margins of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has proposed granting some 350 million euros (448 million dollars) in extra help between now and 2013 to the European Union’s six ex-Soviet neighbours, Azerbaijan, Armenia Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus, on condition that they make significant democratic progress.

The proposal is part of an “Eastern partnership” scheme that is to be approved at an EU summit next month and launched in May.

However France in particular, which championed the EU’s Mediterranean Union project launched last July, has expressed reservations about the Eastern partnership.

“The EU nations which are more attached than others to the Mediterranean will be on their guard,” a French diplomat said recently, stressing that the European budget for 2007-2013 foresees giving the Mediterranean partners two-thirds of the funding available for Europe’s neighbours.

Tuesday, AFP