Brussels - The European Union's executive Wednesday unveiled a plan to spend 600 million euros (759 million dollars) on boosting ties with former-Soviet neighbours, which EU leaders pushed up the political agenda in the wake of the summer's Russian-Georgian war. "The EU has a vital interest in stability, better governance and economic development on our borders," European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso told journalists in Brussels.
"This does not aim at building new areas of influence ... This is aimed at increasing stability and prosperity," he said.
The so-called "Eastern Partnership," originally proposed by Poland and Sweden in May, is aimed at strengthening the EU's ties with Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Moldova - and possibly Belarus if Minsk shows itself open to democratic reforms.
On Wednesday the commission, the EU's executive, allocated 350 million euros to fund the project between 2010 and 2013, with a further 250 million euros to be transferred from other areas.
"It's clear we must do more for our partners. The Eastern Partnership will lead to more stability and prosperity dividends for years to come," External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero- Waldner said.
The proposal calls for increased cooperation with the former-Soviet states in four key areas: democracy and the rule of law, the harmonization of economic systems and rules, energy security, and people-to-people contacts, including visa liberalization.
Officials cautioned that while it is aimed at bringing partner countries closer to EU economic and political standards, it has no bearing on the EU membership hopes of states such as Ukraine.
The partnership "does not exclude membership, but it's the most we can do for now," Barroso said.
In the initial stages, it targets five flagship areas in which the EU and partnership countries should work together: border management, support for small businesses, connections between regional electricity grids, gas and oil pipelines from the Caspian Sea to Europe, and cooperation on disaster response.
Energy security has been of particular concern in the EU ever since a row between Russia and Ukraine in 2005-06 led to gas cut-offs across much of Europe. The bloc is now keen to open up new gas supply routes from the Caspian Sea to Europe, bypassing Russian pipelines.
The commission intends to call a donors' conference in early 2009 to raise funds for upgrading the system of gas pipelines in Ukraine, Ferrero-Waldner said.
And the EU is likely to hold a summit with at least five of the six partnership countries in the spring, she said. The question of whether Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko - currently the target of a suspended EU visa ban imposed after a crackdown on opposition politicians - will be invited remains open, she said.
Initially, the commission had not been expected to publish its proposals on the partnership until the spring, but EU leaders decided at an emergency summit after the summer's Russian-Georgian war that the plan should be greatly accelerated.
"No doubt the events in Georgia in August had an influence on the process ... (EU member states) want stability and opportunities in the neighbourhood, not risks and uncertainties," Barroso said.
He rejected speculation that the Eastern Partnership was the EU's response to Russian claims of a "sphere of influence" in the former-Soviet space, saying, "the Cold War is over, and when there is no Cold War, there should be no spheres of influence."
But he criticized the doctrine of spheres of influence itself, saying that the very idea breached international principles of national sovereignty and independence.
The countries of the Eastern Partnership "have ties with Russia, so I believe Russia has an interest in their stability," he said.
