POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP FOR UKRAINE: A BASIS FOR RAPPROCHEMENT OR DEEPENING THE RIFT IN EUROPE

Being a logic continuation of the European Neighbourhood Policy endowed with several innovative instruments the Eastern Partnership inherited predominantly depoliticized nature with normative convergence remaining the centrepiece of the EU policy towards East European states. But even deprived of clear political grounds the EaP has significant political implications for the Eastern Europe as a whole and particularly for Ukraine which has the most advanced level of cooperation with the EU among the EaP partner state. After exploring these political implications it becomes clear that the Eastern Partnership does not offer a feasible way out of major dilemmas the EU faces in its policy towards East European states and in relations with Russia. So far it contributes to complicating political context for Ukraine without enabling it to solve basic foreign policy tasks. But at the same time it contains valuable instruments which in case of modification of the laid framework and of conceptual approaches underpinning the EaP may be utilized for political stabilization of the European continent.