In recent years, the EU has shown a clear preference for positive rather than coercive instruments to promote human rights beyond its borders. The EU addresses human rights issues with its political partners. As far as its Mediterranean Partners are concerned the EU is engaged in political...

The completion of the fifth enlargement of the European Union (EU) with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania transformed the union into a Black Sea actor. Irrespective of whether we choose not to question the statute of the Black Sea area as a region or attempt to grasp its complexity, it...

The conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria undermine the potential of the European Neighbourhood Policy and they worsen the human rights situation in the immediate neighbourhood of the European Union. Not being under the control of the metropolitan states, the...

Readmission agreements have been used for a long time as a key means of combating illegal immigration, whether at bilateral, intergovernmental or Community level. To date, six agreements have been signed between the European Community and its Member States, for the one part, and third countries,...

This reflection document presents an assessment of the human rights consultations between the EU and Russia, placed in the more general context of their cooperation, as well as proposals and suggestions not only to improve their progress, but also to reshape their direction and objectives. It is...