Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 05/2011

Getting cold in the Caucasus: Can the EU prevent the freezing of the Georgian-Russian conflict?

Teemu Sinkkonen

March 2011

Finnish Institute for International Affairs

Abstract

Georgia is of great strategic significance to the EU. Settling the territorial disputes related to Abkhazia and South Ossetia is important for the overall stability of the region as well as for the EU-Russia relationship. Developments in Georgia are also significant for the EU’s Eastern Partnership (EaP)—a policy aimed at enhancing democratic development, trade, sustainable economic growth and social reforms in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood in the absence of an explicit commitment to further enlargement.