Eastern Partnership versus CIS?

CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev from Russia has suggested that Eastern Partnership Programme member countries might face certain difficulties in the CIS. Parts of some agreements signed by CIS members contradict certain paragraphs of the Eastern Partnership Programme terms, something easily overlooked, and thus EPP countries will have to make a choice between the two.

Lebedev thinks that the losses EPP countries might have to bear could be much higher than the benefits they will gain from being part of it. The CIS Executive Secretary expressed the hope however that some commonsense steps could be still taken to rescue the situation.

All six EPP members are post-Soviet countries. Georga has withdrawn from the CIS but the other five EPP countries, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine, are still members.