The EU and conflict resolution in the South Caucasus

"Conflict Resolution in the South Caucasus: The EU's Role", the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the EU’s efforts to address tensions over Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and points out how the EU can do more.

"Greater engagement is a challenge Brussels has only just begun to address", says Sabine Freizer, Crisis Group's Caucasus Project Director. "There have been a few promising steps, but there is a long way to go".

Thus far, others have taken the lead in promoting conflict settlement in the region, but over a decade of negotiations led by the UN in Abkhazia, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Nagorno Karabakh and South Ossetia, have not produced comprehensive peace agreements. With its reputation as an "honest broker", access to a range of soft and hard power tools, and the lure of greater integration into Europe, the EU has a greater role to play, and offers added value to compliment the UN and the OSCE.

To avoid instability on its borders, the EU seeks a ring of well-governed countries around it. It is further interested in the South Caucasus to ensure access to Caspian oil and gas, develop transport and communication corridors between Europe and Asia, and contain such threats as smuggling, trafficking and environmental degradation.

As the EU is unlikely to offer membership to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan any time soon, it must identify innovative means to impose conditionality on its aid and exercise influence. European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plans are being finalised. These offer a chance for the EU to enhance its role especially if the peaceful resolution of the conflicts are defined as commitments.

The new EU Special Representative should observe ongoing negotiations for the Abkhazian, South Ossetian and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts. The Commission has allocated significant funding to rehabilitation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It should assess how it can start doing more in and around Nagorno Karabakh.

"The EU is trying to define its role in a new neighbourhood which is neither at war nor at peace", says Nicholas Whyte, Director of Crisis Group's Europe Program. "If the EU fails to implement its strategic vision for a secure neighbourhood, its credibility in the region, and generally vis-?-vis Russia and the U.S., will suffer. More troublingly, if the South Caucasus conflicts continue to deteriorate, the EU may find itself unprepared for responding to wars among its neighbours".

/www.crisisgroup.org/