The European Union in Central Asia: A One-Dimensional Strategy

By adopting ‘The EU and Central Asia: Strategy for a New Partnership' in 2007, the European Union (EU) was supposed to implement a comprehensive strategy for Central Asia. Although the framework of the Strategy was broad in content, energy and transport links have been the outstanding priorities regarding EU strategic interests, namely, security and stability. The aim of this paper is to review and analyze EU's engagement with the region by examining, the content of the EU strategy, especially the focus on energy. The analysis shows that although the EU presents a comprehensive strategy aiming at cooperation with a balanced bilateral and regional approach in several areas, there are problems with implementation because of its late entry into the region. Moreover, the focus on energy corresponds to neglect in other areas. This suggests that the EU strategy is designed to serve EU interests more than those of Central Asian states.