U.S.-EU Cooperation on Reform in Eurasia

The United States and the European Union (EU) share a common goal of promoting successful transitions to democracy and market-based economies in Eurasia. We share a common goal in combating threats to regional stability and the transition process: crime and corruption; illicit narcotics; weapons of mass destruction; and trafficking of persons. We coordinate our policy messages and our assistance programs in order to maximize their impact.

Recent successful examples of U.S.-EU cooperation in promoting democratization, free media, respect for human rights and key economic reforms include:

• In Georgia, the U.S. and EU have worked closely together to support a smooth transition for that country's new leadership in the wake of the "Revolution of the Roses." We continue to work together to support the aspirations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia to further integrate into the Euro-Atlantic family. The EU’s European Neighborhood Policy and NATO’s Partnership for Peace promote the values we share in common with Europe, and build deeper connections between the nations of the South Caucasus and the more established democracies of the West;

• In Ukraine, we joined forces to promote free and fair local and presidential elections in 2004, which contributed to the Ukrainian people’s rejection of electoral fraud and to the historic repeat vote on December 26. In Belarus, the EU and United States have coordinated at an unprecedented level, including by conducting a joint diplomatic mission to Minsk in the Spring of 2004 to send a clear and united message on democratization, and by enacting travel restrictions on those officials implicated in election malfeasance and human rights violations. In Moldova, we also coordinated travel restrictions against the leadership of the Transnistrian separatists, and are promoting a free and fair campaign and parliamentary election on March 6;

• The U.S. and EU recognize the challenge to security and stability of the South Caucasus and Black Sea regions posed by the unresolved conflicts in the area of Eurasia. We support the territorial integrity of Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan and cooperate to facilitate international efforts to achieve peaceful political settlements to the conflicts over Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh;

• In Central Asia, the United States and European Union work together to support democratic and economic transition, protection of human rights, promoting good governance/rule of law, increased regional trade, and humanitarian and human development. We also cooperate in the effort to combat trade in opium and heroin from Afghanistan—a serious threat to peace and stability and a growing public health concern in the region. The U.S., European Commission, and EU member states, working with the United Nations agencies, closely coordinate our assistance programs to boost Central Asian states’ capabilities to meet this threat. U.S. and EU assistance efforts have provided much-needed training, equipment, physical infrastructure, and more effective government institutions.