10. The EU and Central Asia: The Nuances of an ‘Aided’ Partnership

This chapter takes a critical look at the EU-Central Asia cooperation since the 1990s until now. It argues that although this partnership has always stood out as smooth and balanced, and thus less fraught with major political controversies and abrupt U-turns compared to other external partners of the Central Asian region, one sees important limitations that call for revisiting of institutional and ideational aspects of interaction. The chapter analyses three aspects which reflect the nature of the real challenge: the burden of asymmetric power relations between the EU and Central Asian states; neglected differences and complexities of cooperation by the two parties; and the ‘project’-logic that mixes up cooperation with development assistance, and prioritises the continuity of engagement over the purpose of cooperation.