Today a long awaited EU Strategy for Central Asia will be announced and signed in Berlin. The vast Central Asian region including five former Soviet states remained a “gap” in the European scope of interests for a long time. However, with the rise of prices on oil and gas, and high dependency on Russian gas imports, finding alternative sources for energy imports became the EU priority.

German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier called for “a new partnership” and “energy dialogue” between Europe and resources, and dictators rich region. Yet before the adoption of the concept it has already been criticized within the EU Member States and by international organisations monitoring human rights records.
When it comes to its own security, the EU seems to be less eager to talk about authoritarian regimes. The move for partnership is also driven by European economic and trade interests. One of the reasons, why Uzbekistan, most populous in the region could not be excluded from the EU agreement, in spite of the embargo put on this country (the EU has a practice of excluding countries from its partnerships due to low human rights records – see European Neighbourhood policy for Belarus and Libya).

The issue of how to deal with the Andizhan tragedy has long been a fishbone in throat for European politicians. Uzbek government supported by Russia and China called the tragedy a terrorist insurgence, and refused international investigation into these events. During the Astana meeting of Central Asian foreign ministers and EU-Troika in March, Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov said Andizhan was subject to “internal affairs”, and reminded that Uzbekistan was an “Asian” country. He did not define, though, what an Asian country meant in his view. Under the pressure of human rights watchdogs German efforts on lifting the embargo failed, and the ban was prolonged for another year.

The new “balanced” EU strategy concept most probably will not go far beyond the political cooperation already in place, such as the support of security and regional cooperation, development aid, and cultural exchange. In fact, human rights issues might even remain low key, if any. International Crisis Group has already noted that the agreement contains “nothing strategical” (in the field of democracy, human rights and civil society building).

The main aim is to get a share in energy resources, and the EU seems to strongly believe that cooperation in this field shall also deliver democracy to Central Asia. Well, let’s see and hope that miracles do happen.