In May 2009, the EU launched its Eastern Partnership initiative to establish closer relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The governments of these countries declared their intention to respect the values of democracy and human rights, and to align with
EU standards of good governance and the rule of law.
The European Integration Index for Eastern Partnership Countries charts the progress made by the six countries towards integration with the EU. The Index is a set of composite indicators based on more than 800 detailed scores, comprising both statistical data and questions rated by country experts. This data set provides a detailed stocktaking of progress made by the six Eastern Partnership countries.
The Index is designed to generate recommendations to guide countries along the reform process and to raise the alarm when countries depart from the expected trajectory, when progress is being held back or even reversed. The Index also serves as an important monitoring tool for both civil society and policymakers in the partner countries and the EU.
The Index interprets “progress in European integration” as the combination of two separate,
yet interdependent processes:
• firstly, increased linkages between each of the EaP countries and the EU;
• secondly, greater approximation between each EaP country’s institutions, legislation and practices, and those of the EU.
The Index was initiated and funded by the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI, Brussels) and the International Renaissance Foundation (IRF, Kiev). I advised the conceptual and methodological design of the Index. The Index covering 2015/16 was produced by the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, IRF, OSEPI and the Policy Association for an Open Society. The project is funded by Open Society Foundations, IRF, the European Union, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. In the past, the project has also benefited from the support of the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA) and, apart from IRF, from that of individual foundations of Open Society Foundations in Eastern Partnership countries.
Download the 2016 edition:EaP_Index_2016