Creating good neighbours in Russia’s backyard
The EU's relationship with its Eastern neighbourhood is in trouble - and the EU doesn't even recognise it
Experts & Staff
Nicu Popescu
Director, Wider Europe programme
Areas of expertise
Russian domestic and foreign policies; Eastern Partnership countries and their relations with the EU; post-Soviet conflicts; cybersecurity
Languages
English, Russian, French, Romanian
Biography
Nicu Popescu is the director of the Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, and he works from ECFR’s Paris office. His topics of focus include EU’s relations with Russia and the Eastern Partnership countries.
In 2019, Popescu served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova. Previously, he worked as a senior analyst at the EU Institute for Security Studies (2013-2018); senior advisor on foreign policy to the prime minister of Moldova (2010, 2012-2013); senior research fellow at ECFR’s London office (2007-2009, 2011-2012), and as a research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels (2005-2007).
Popescu teaches at Sciences-Po Paris. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He is author of the EU foreign policy and post-Soviet conflicts: stealth intervention (Routledge 2010) and co-editor of Democratization in EU Foreign Policy (with Benedetta Berti and Kristina Mikulova), published in 2015.
Avoiding a new iron curtain
As European leaders travel to Prague for tomorrow's Eastern Partnership summit, the Eastern neighbourhood states are experiencing the worst political, security and economic crisis they have faced since their independence in 1991
Moldavija – pozabljena de?ela na robu EU
Če v Bruslju ne bodo vodili "dejavne" politike do Moldavije, bo v njej zavladal avtoritarni re?im, kakr?nega imajo v sosednji Belorusiji
EU unity and divisions on the East
The EU must take a serious took at the strategy it employs to its East - the disunity on how to deal with Russia and the Eastern Neighbourhood is paralysing
Разместване на пластовете в Украйна
Големият въпрос е какво ще направи Русия, когато вихърът от украински кризи прерасне в цунами
Moldova threatens Europe?s eastern overtures
The EU should care enough to act in Moldova - it needs to
Putting Moldova on the map
The European Union is the only political actor with the credibility to find a solution to the current crisis in Moldova writes Nicu Popescu
An EU response to Moldova?s ?Twitter Revolution?
The EU should immediately send a mediation team led by Javier Solana to settle the political crisis, Nicu Popescu recommends
Bulgaria’s Electoral Adventurism
Bulgaria's president has campaigned for the Communist party, while MPs think that European states should learn from Azeri electoral practices
The Eastern Partnership in crisis
What is the likely impact of the crisis on the Eastern Partnership, the attempt to resuscitate the European neighbourhood policy and focus EU's political attention on the East?
Publications
A new transatlantic bargain: An action plan for transformation, not restoration
The Trump years galvanised Europeans’ efforts to strengthen their own sovereignty; they now need to agree concrete offers they can make to the new administration
The best defence: Why the EU should forge security compacts with its eastern neighbours
If the EU is to be more geopolitically influential in its own neighbourhood, it needs to start developing strategic security partnerships with key neighbours to the east and the south
Defender of the faith? How Ukraine’s Orthodox split threatens Russia
Introduction An average Westerner may well have overlooked the potentially seismic geopolitical event of 6 January 2019. On that snowy Sunday – Epiphany in western…
Transnistria: A bottom-up solution
How to defrost Moldova's frozen conflict
Dealing with a post-BRIC Russia
Learning to deal with a changing Russia under a familiar leader
A Chance to Reform: How the EU can support democratic evolution in Morocco
Helping Moroccan democracy through evolution not revolution
Turning Presence into Power: the EU in its eastern neighbourhood
The EU needs to be more influential in its eastern neighbourhood
After the revolution: Europe and the transition in Tunisia
Tunisians need European help to turn their revolution into a democracy
European and Russian power in the troubled neighbourhood
The EU's strategy for influence in the eastern neighbourhood
Can the EU win the peace in Georgia?
This authors analyse the background and developments in the Russia-Georgia conflict and outline recommendations on how to prevent wider political fallout
Articles
Europe needs to nurture security partnerships or face growing isolation
No matter who wins the US election, the EU will need to play a bigger security role in its neighbourhood
How the EU became marginalised in Nagorno-Karabakh
EU diplomacy could facilitate a conflict settlement process by pressuring Armenia and Azerbaijan to start implementing the Madrid Principles
A captive ally: Why Russia isn’t rushing to Armenia’s aid
Russia appears willing to allow Azerbaijan to recapture some areas around Nagorno-Karabakh, betting on Armenian dependency and Azerbaijani gratitude
A hill here, a village there: Nagorno-Karabakh and the salami-slicing wars
Azerbaijan and Armenia are shifting from two decades of ‘frozen conflict settlement’ to an era of ‘salami-slicing wars’ – small conflicts designed to extract diplomatic concessions or regain territory from the adversary slice by slice
Belarus and Armenia: How Russia handles uprisings
Russia’s goal in its neighbourhood is to regain influence, not to be surrounded by neutral, self-sufficient buffer states
Russia showed Turkey and China how to bully the EU
The more meekly the EU handles other powers’ aggressive tactics, the more they will be tempted to imitate each other in novel ways to ignore, challenge, and openly attack European interests
Why a new Yalta wouldn’t end the malaise between the West and Russia
The political moment might seem propitious for a new Yalta, but such a system is likely to create more problems than it solves
Serbia and coronavirus propaganda: High time for a transactional EU
It is time for the EU to direct much more of its financial assistance through channels other than highly corrupt governments that consistently violate European norms and standards
The EU’s strategic sovereignty starts in Eastern Europe
The real test of the EU’s power and its strategic sovereignty will be in how it deals with external problems – not least those in its neighbourhood
How the coronavirus threatens a geopolitical Europe
After the crisis, the EU will face the same geopolitical problems it did before. But, this time, it might need to tackle them with less internal solidarity and external credibility.
Podcasts
Europe’s new transatlantic bargain for Biden’s America
When Biden enters the White House, he will look for a Europe that brings solutions rather than problems. Europeans should show they can be an equal partner & offer him a new transatlantic bargain.
Nagorno-Karabakh: Armenia and Azerbaijan’s thawing of the ‘frozen conflict’
The contested Nagorno-Karabakh region is at the heart of a decades-long armed standoff between neighbours Armenia and Azerbaijan. The…
Russia’s Syria, Turkey’s Libya?
The attempt of a peace process in Libya is facing several substantial hindrances, where a variety of actors keep on inducing significant upheavals in its…
As covid-19 arrives, Putin disappears – Russia in the age of corona.
How is Russia dealing with covid-19? What impact does the pandemic have on the other underlying political issues in Russia – such as the change…
Geopolitics in the coronavirus era – who will be crowned winner?
Last week’s episode saw our experts dissecting the coronavirus’ implications for Europe. In today's episode, we’re breaking down how the crisis is unfolding in the…
Europe’s Eastern Neighbourhood: Ukraine and Moldova
Standing in for regular host Mark Leonard, Anthony Dworkin, senior policy fellow at ECFR, looks at Europe's Eastern neighbourhood and interaction with Russia. He is…
Ukraine Under President Zelensky
Podcast de notre débat du 21 mai « Ukraine Under President Zelensky » en présence de Victor Andruziv, directeur de l’Ukrainian Institute for…
The Sea of Azov: The newest front in the war in Ukraine?
Mark Leonard speaks with Andrew Wilson, Kadri Liik and Nicu Popescu about the Kerch Strait ship capture, what this means and how the international community…
Russian foreign policy in the cyber age
Podcast de notre BCM du 7 novembre en partenariat avec l’Institut d’études de sécurité de l’Union européenne (EUISS): « Russian foreign policy in the cyber…
Russia and the Middle East
Podcast de notre conférence du 1 octobre en partenariat avec l’Institut d’études de sécurité de l’Union européenne (EUISS) : « Russia and the Middle East…
In the media
Nicu Popescu analyses Russia's role in the clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh - and how they are going to impact on the EU's strategy in its wider neighbourhood.
Nicu Popescu's recent article on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is quoted by Eurasianet
Nicu Popescu takes part in the latest episode of Ukraine World to explain what's happening in the Eastern Partnership countries
Nicu Popescu on Maia Sandu's victory and what it means for the future of Moldova
Nicu Popecsu comments on Maia Sandu winning the elections in Moldova.