European Union

The European Neighbourhood Policy provides the political framework of our cooperation. It invites EU neighbours in the East and in the South to share the peace, stability and prosperity that European Union enjoys for more than half a century. The policy aims to create a ring of friends around the borders of the enlarged EU.

The ENP offers the countries an increasingly close relationship with the EU, involving a significant degree of economic integration and a deepening of political cooperation in an approach founded on partnership, joint ownership and differentiation. Our work with each country should be tailor-made to its interests and capacities. The ENP is a key vehicle for promoting European values, and sharing the fruits of the EU’s enlargement to the benefit of EU citizens and EU neighbours.

The EU shares a past as well as many common interests with its southern and eastern neighbours, from trade to cultural exchanges, from migration issues to environmental cooperation. Across the Mediterranean, the ENP reinforces and builds on the cooperation that was developed over almost 15 years under the Barcelona process.

For EU neighbours in the east, the European Neighbourhood Policy shows that we are moving towards a new and closer relationship, so as to avoid the emergence of new dividing lines on our continent. For those countries, the ENP will gradually be replaced by the Eastern Partnership, formally launched in May 2009.

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