La "dimensione orientale" della Politica Europea di Vicinato: il caso dell'Ucraina.

Ukraine currently is the hottest topic in Eastern Europe affairs. Although nowadays most of the attentions moves, understandably, toward the military crisis with the eastern rebel regions, it mustn't be forgotten all those processes, initiated in peacetime, which have seconded the former Soviet Union countries from Russia's orbit to an European approach. One of the most significant tools that holds the European Union is the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). The ENP represent a case-study of what means the soft power concept and why the EU is still the best ¿pole of democratic attraction¿ example. In 2003 the European Commission efforts to include all those neighborhood oriented tools, previously created for every single case, under a single external action leaded to the ¿Wider Europe¿ initiative. Nevertheless, a few years after, was stressed the need of a separation between the actions oriented toward the Mediterranean neighborhood and the Eastern European countries. This text analyzes the reality of the Eastern Partnership and in particular its relationship with Ukraine. Through the analysis of the actions taken in the past by the EU it will be made an overview starting from the Prague Declaration of 2009 and the instruments commonly used by Brussels to disseminate its soft power. It will be analyzed instruments such as the Action Plans, the Association Agreement tool and all the political and economic measures applied to enforce a stable democracy and develop a free-market economy in the East. Another relevant part of the text will explore the possible measures that should be taken in the future, in relation to Eastern regional reality. The implementation of the ENP instrument is, clearly, the first point from which it needs to start. In second analysis it will be considered the specific case of Ukraine and the effects that a dramatic situation, such as the one currently in progress, will have on the future of the Eastern Partnership. It will be also taken into consideration the negative externalities generated by the proximity with Russia which in the past have slowed the European integration of Ukraine. Finally the study will try to draw out an exhaustive image of the possibles future scenarios in Ukraine analyzing the internal situation of the country both in terms of the economy and from the democratization point of view. As will be often underlined, it's pretty difficult to predict how the situation will evolve from the current crisis to an end, but considering all the tools in our hands it's not impossible to take account of the different tracks that could be undertaken. For this study several sources that could help to give a complete image of the situation have been used. The most part of the study has been made through the comparison of official documents (taken mostly from the EU database, FMI, World Bank, NATO and governmental sources) and specialist's essays, which have been a precious source. Nevertheless a study like this, so focused on the contemporaneity of the facts, cannot exclusively rely on academic tools, therefore it has been also sought support in authoritative press sources precisely because of a constantly changing situation where only press sources may provide a day-by-day report.