| Publication |
2007.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The European Union, one of the world's most successful integration projects, is inevitably analyzed by every expert who probes deep into the international trends of our time.
The union of 27 countries, with a population of about 480 million who produce about 28% of the world's GDP, has certain interests in Central Asia even though the EU's geopolitical status has not yet been fully developed. The EU wants to see stable and democratic regimes with market economies in Central Asia that are guided by Western values and standards. This will reduce the region's conflict potential and its criminological impact on the EU in the form of drug trafficking and illegal migration and improve the conditions in which European companies are functioning in the local economies and the energy sector.
To achieve this, the European structures use various instruments ranging from the TACIS and TEMPUS programs of technical assistance designed to promote structural and institutional reforms in the economic and legislation spheres, as well as in state administration and education, to the TRACECA and INOGATE programs of transportation infrastructure modernization and political support of the human rights organizations.
Energy is the central issue of the EU's economic interests in the Central Asian countries for the simple reason that
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