THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBORHOOD POLICY: EUROPEAN UNION’S RELATIONS WITH ITS EASTERN NEIGHBORS

The aim of the study is to examine the relations of European Union with its Eastern Neighbors from the perspective of the European Neighborhood Policy launched in 2004. The main goal of the European Neighborhood Policy is to contribute to the democratic transformation and economic development of neighboring countries by providing stability. European Union started the Eastern Partnership initiative in 2009 in order to ensure effective function and to improve the cooperation with its Eastern neighbors. This intiative can be considered as a milestone in terms of economic and political cooperation between the partners. In this study, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which take part in the Eastern Partnership initiative, were analyzed according to their income levels. Besides, situation analyzes of these countries were made in terms of governance quality issued by the World Bank and economic freedom index that determines the extent to which liberal economic elements are applied in the countries. When the relations formed within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy were evaluated;it was concluded that European Union established intense economic relations with Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia had a beter position in terms of both economic freedom and governance quality compared to other countries