Научно-аналитический вестник Института Европы РАН (Aug 2022)
On the Interaction of Euro Parties with Parties from the Eastern Partnership Countries. Part 5
Abstract
The article analyzes the cooperation of three pan-European political organizations – the Party of the European Left (PEL), the European Free Alliance (EFA) and the European Christian Political Movement (ECPD) – with their partners in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). All these European parties, since 2014, have sought to establish cooperation with ideologically close parties from these countries and even accepted them into their ranks as full members. The profiles of these organizations and their leaders, the results of participation in national parliamentary, presidential and local elections, interaction with other political forces of their countries on the formation of electoral and ruling coalitions were studied. The main provisions of their program documents, which reflect the pro-European choice, as well as press releases and statements by the leaders of the PEL, the EFA and the ECPM, concerning the situation in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership, are given. It is shown that all three European parties supported this program and their partners, regardless of their electoral results. It is noted that in Belarus and Moldova, the local PEL member parties, and in Ukraine, the ECPM member party initially achieved good results in national and local elections, but in recent years most of them have found themselves on the political periphery. The reasons for this phenomenon vary from country to country. Nevertheless, European leftists, Regionalists and Christian Democrats are confident that as the situation stabilizes, issues of social justice, strengthening sovereignty and preserving traditional values will return to the political agenda and become in demand again. It was noted that two more European parties, Identity and Democracy and the European Democratic Party, which have official registration in the EU, currently have no ties with parties from the Eastern Partnership member countries.
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