BRUSSELS. Dec 2 (Interfax) - The European Union's 2014 budget has no separate section on funding the Eastern Partnership, nor is the latter a special expenditure item in the EU's financial plans for the next seven years, and this means the Partnership is a political more than economic project, Russia's permanent envoy to the EU argued on Monday.
"What has happened and, alas, is still happening in Kyiv reflects or confirms indirectly - or directly, if you like, - the politicized character of this project," Vladimir Chizhov told a roundtable during a European Russian Forum session entitled "The EU's Eastern Partnership: A Way to the Unification or Division of Europe?"
"We are closely following Eastern Partnership processes, we are closely monitoring the implementation of that initiative. We are concerned about its high politicization," he said.