Newcomers to press EU for stronger eastern focus

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The European Union's newcomers from central Europe will try next week to shift the bloc's focus from the Mediterranean region to its eastern neighbours, which they feel are being neglected, diplomats said on Friday.

Foreign ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and the three Baltic states will meet counterparts from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan on Sunday on the eve of a conference on the EU's neighbourhood policy.

"The idea is to create a joint front for Monday's meeting ... to give more emphasis to the EU's eastern policy," a Lithuanian diplomat told Reuters.

Central European countries that joined the EU in 2004 believe the old members often pay more attention to the Middle East and North Africa at the expense of former Soviet republics, where Russia is fighting to roll back Western influence.

That translates into less EU aid for the eastern region.

"The south has its Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and nothing like that exists for the east," the diplomat said, referring to the EU's forum of economic and political cooperation with 10 Mediterranean countries.

On Monday, the executive European Commission hosts a first meeting with all 15 partner states and the Palestinian Authority covered by its 3-year-old European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).

Portugal, the EU's current president, has said the bloc's priorities should shift southwards after it successfully enlarged eastwards, in the light of threats that emerged after the September 11 attacks in the United States.

"... Since 9/11, the strategic environment has changed and the EU has to be focused on new threats and challenges. We need to look to the Mediterranean, to the south," Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said shortly before assuming the presidency in May.

Another diplomat from a new member state said Sunday's dinner would discuss ways of integrating eastern neighbours faster into the EU's single market, easing visa restrictions for their citizens and boosting political cooperation.

EU newcomers would also like to see the EU more involved in resolving the "frozen conflicts" in the former Soviet Union, such as in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia. (additional reporting by Paul Taylor)

Keywords: EU NEIGHBOURS/

[BRUSSELS/Reuters/Finance.cz]