The European Union (EU) must offer expansion prospects to its eastern neighbors – Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, says a joint letter Polish and Swedish Foreign Ministers, Radosław Sikorski and Carl Bildt, addressed to Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Štefan Füle, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy.

The letter says that the countries in question are actually European ones with certain status. The ministers pointed out that the countries have to observe the European rules to be admitted to the European Union: implementing legal reforms, creating free trade zones and cooperating in law-enforcement, military and migration areas. In their letter, the Polish and Swedish FMs point out that the EU is unlikely to offer membership to the post-Soviet states within the next ten years.

The letter calls for proper preparations for a summit with Eastern Partnership member-states to be held in Budapest on May 26, 2011, reports EUobserver.