Alexander Stubb: The EU needs two Eastern policies

Niina Sarkonen
Ulkopolitiikka, Issue 4/2008

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb would already want to forget the notion according to which Finland holds a special status as regards the relations with Russia. In foreign political decision-making, on the other hand, he would give a bigger role to Finnish Parliament, when the time comes.

When giving a speech at the Annual Meeting of Heads of Missions a few weeks after the war in Georgia, Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb (National Coalition Party) described the war as “a foreign political alarm clock” that would awaken us to consider the future of the entire international system. His diagnosis was that after 080808, the day when the war began, the world is no longer the same as it used to be.

The Ulkopolitiikka magazine asked Stubb how did the war in Georgia change the direction of the EU and Finnish foreign policy.

UP: How did Europe change?

AS: The war strengthened the unity of Europe, as the member states finally came to understand that we have to make our Foreign and Security Policy together and be able to speak with one voice. During the crisis, the guiding principle of the EU was that you must use hard words, but be soft in your actions.

All in all, the crisis shifted the focal point of the EU towards the east. If earlier the focal point was in Central Europe or Western Balkans, it is now shifting towards Caucasia and partly also Central Asia, because, in the future, we don’t want to make the same mistakes we did with Caucasia.

Accordingly, the EU needs two Eastern policies. One policy would concern the relations with Russia and the other would cover Eastern Europe – i.e. Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus – and Southern Caucasia and Central Asian countries. Russia is a strategic partner for the EU and interdepence prevails between them, but it is a big challenge to transform the partnership into a functional relationship.

At the same time, the EU also needs an actual policy concerning Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia. They cannot be treated as mere remainders of the former Soviet Union, since the political stability, democracy, economic development and energy issues of these areas are very important entities from the EU’s point of view. Presently, this second track of Eastern policy is being deliberated in the EU within the framework of so-called Eastern Partnership.

The interview in Ulkopolitiikka (in Finnish)