“New Vectors of European Cooperation, a View from Poland” The role of new forms of cooperation in solving the EU crisis was discussed in a meeting at TEPAV.

ANKARA – A meeting titled “New Vectors of European Cooperation, a View from Poland” was held at TEPAV on Thursday, 14 February 2013. The meeting moderated by TEPAV Foreign Policy Institute Director Prof. Dr. Atila Eralp who  hosted Dr. Olaf Osica, Director at the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw. Touching upon the ongoing crisis in the European Union (EU), Dr. Osica stressed new forms of cooperation which has in a sense been going through a “renaissance”.  He shared his thoughts regarding the potential of new forms of cooperation to offer a solution for the crisis and that they might function as a catalyst for the restoration of the Union.

Dr. Osica stated that the main repercussions of the crisis for the EU were that the economic governance was put into question and mistrust emerged within the “north” and “south” parts of the Union. He added that the crisis in the southern and eastern neighbors of the Union aggravated the impacts of the crisis.

“New themes for cooperation include visa policy and ecology”

He referred to the new themes in the cooperation models like visa and ecology and talked about the influences of the recent enlargements on the Union, which were the emerging of new coalitions and the shift of the power structure towards the east, centered at Germany.

Dr. Osica mentioned the unchanged geopolitical framework concerning the policy decisions in the EU, which he regards as a critical factor for the new vectors of European cooperation. Within this context, he emphasized that the Lisbon Treaty had failed to alter the intrinsic institutional habits.

The meeting ended after questions and contributions from the audience.