While the scope of the paper is to assess the actions undertaken by the European Union towards the FSU-CIS (Former Soviet Union, Commonwealth of Independent States) which was manifested through the Eastern Partnership Initiative in the years 2008 -2014, the focus will be centred on theoretical concepts and their 'explanatory power' rather than actions undertaken by European or Russian decision makers. Taking that under account, this essay will critically assess the explanatory power of the neorealist school of thought which although overtly criticized, still remains a viable tool in explaining the processes occurring in international relations.

Neutralność w Mołdawii traktowana jest przez władze państwa jako strategia, która mogłaby zagwarantować przetrwanie w środowisku międzynarodowym. Niemniej, mimo osadzenia w prawie państwowym (w ustawie zasadniczej), Mołdawia nie posiada gwarancji międzynarodowych dla swojego statusu neutralności, co wynika przede wszystkim z niekonsekwentnej polityki zagranicznej. Mołdawia stoi przed wyborem dwóch strategii: pierwszej, polegające na zacieśnieniu relacji z Zachodem; drugiej, na polepszeniu relacji z Rosją i mimo, że wybór każdej ze ścieżek wiązałby się z wysokim ryzykiem, wydają się one lepsze od polityki pozorowanej neutralności, jaką państwo to dotychczas prowadziło.

Support for democratisation and democracy has become one of the leading topics in a wide-ranging debate over the state of democracy in the contemporary world. The European Union became an important player in global politics, one with an ambitious programme for the spreading and supporting of democracy and the process of democratisation in Eastern Europe. Hence the author’s attempt at addressing the following question: what actions and strategies have and are being undertaken by the EU to facilitate the above-mentioned processes? The aim of the paper is to describe and assess the strategies and actions of the European Union in the field of supporting democratisation and democracy in selected countries of the former USSR (e.g. Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), additionally well-fitting to the concept of Eastern Partnership, in the last decade of XX and the first decade of XXI Century. The paper also aims to present which procedures and standards (that are supposed to guarantee their usefulness and effectiveness) are being used by the EU. The emphasis has been placed primarily on the processes of democratisation, their mileage, specificity and possible strategies for supporting democratic development, as well as its potential for consolidation, in the countries of the former Soviet Union. In order to conduct the research it is necessary to assess the political, social and economic conditions in the researched countries. It is to be stressed that one should be aware of the complexity and dynamics of the described processes whilst evaluating the EU’s initiatives. The papers topic was chosen due to the importance and currentness of the researched EU actions and their results.