You're reading: EU Commissioner Hahn insists on revision of European Neighborhood Policy

BRUSSELS - Commissioner-designate for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn has stressed the need to revise the European Neighborhood Policy.

“Since the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) was launched ten years ago, there have been profound changes in our Neighborhood. Although the ENP was revised in 2011 in response to the Arab Spring, the instability throughout the Neighborhood, but in particular in Ukraine, Syria and Libya, underlines the need for further change,” the commissioner said in his written answers to the questions from members of the European Parliament.

According to Hahn, president-elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker asked him “to suggest a way forward within the first year of the new mandate.”

“The ENP needs to become more flexible. Our neighboring countries are too diverse to apply a one-size-fits-all approach,” the commissioner said.

The ENP needs to be able to respond more quickly and effectively to crises, Hahn stressed.

“A priority for me in the East must be to contribute to a solution of the crisis in Ukraine. In the south the EU must support a political solution to the crisis in Syria, with close attention too, to developments in Libya,” he wrote.