Drawing Lessons of Past Cooperation between EU and Central Asia for the Implementation of 2019 Strategy

Abstract

In June 2019, the European Union presented a new ‘Strategy for Cooperation with Central Asia,’ a document which was elaborated following a process of consultation between the EU Member States, EU institutions and the Central Asian countries. Cooperation between the EU and Central Asia started immediately after independence, but it reached political maturity with the adoption of the 2007 Strategy for a New Partnership. The implementation of this Strategy showed the limited capacity of the EU to address local needs and challenges, while also dealing with its own internal crises and heavy foreign policy architecture. The 2019 Strategy aims at enhancing the political role of the European Union in Central Asia by better focusing on the priorities and correlating them with other strategic frameworks in the foreign policy area. However, in order to fully use the opportunities offered by the relative opening of the Central Asian countries to regional cooperation and the continued enhancement of political relations with the EU, Brussels needs to adapt flexible instruments of implementation for the Strategy.