Human Rights Conditionality in the EU's Newly Concluded Association Agreements with the Eastern Partners

Abstract

The recent association agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are meant to replace the existing Partnership and Cooperation Agreements between the EU and the three Eastern Partners. Their purpose is to deepen the political and economic ties between the contracting parties and to gradually integrate these countries into the legal and economic system of the EU. This Chapter aims to provide a critical discussion of human rights conditionality under these agreements and ascertain whether the ‘human rights' clauses included in these agreements are a simple matter of ‘legal inflation', mere political commitments, or whether the EU managed to design legally enforceable provisions and has provided a common ground to be followed in this field. It is concluded that even though the agreements provide a more robust institutional set-up and new multi-level instruments exist to ensure the implementation and reporting of human rights commitments, in essence the agreements are still focused on trade-related issues and the practical operation of human rights clauses is questionable.