EU works out a new strategy for South Caucasus. Within the framework of Sept. 14 meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels the bloc’s outreach program to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will be mulled. Georgia falls back as EU spells a quiet end to its ambitions, Radio Liberty reports.

EU officials, familiar with recent debates say its current Swedish presidency has been asked to draw up a guidance document for an in-depth review of the aims of EU cooperation with Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as “both the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and Eastern Partnership (EP) outreach schemes have failed to provide a clear and durable blueprint for the EU's relations with its neighbors,” RFE/RL reads.

However, the new strategy will not represent a “radical departure” from the existing EU policies, which means the three countries “as closely in line with its laws and policies as possible.”

“The EU recognizes that the South Caucasus is gaining in importance in terms of regional stability, energy, and trade. All three countries are being offered association agreements which could lead to free trade and visa liberalization. EU membership, as before, is not on offer,” the article goes on.

“The three principles that officials in Brussels say will underlie future relations between the EU and South Caucasus – inclusiveness, differentiation, and conditionality – are similarly modest in scope. Every country interested in cooperation must be given the chance, no one can hold anyone else back, and progress will depend on results. This spells a quiet end to Georgia's ambitions to elevate itself to a status on par with Ukraine.

Georgia's demotion to just another state in the Caucasus does not represent so much a failure of the EU – which has always pursued a highly cautious &‘wait and see’ policy toward Georgia,” the source says.

“South Caucasus countries must ‘earn’ closer ties with the EU by showing sufficient political will,” European Commission asserts.