The paper was first presented in an international conference on Security, Democracy and Development in the Southern Caucasus and the Black Sea Region organized by the Academic Swiss Caucasus Net in cooperation with Kadir Has University on 11–13 October 2012 in Istanbul. The authors thank Roy Allison, Panagiota Manoli and two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments on previous versions of this article. All remaining errors remain the sole responsibility of the authors.

1. The principle of ‘more for more’ has been observed more seriously by the EU since the Arab Spring and the establishment of the EEAS. However, the implementation of the ‘differentiation’ has remained subject to double standards in relation to the Eastern Partnership countries. Although both Azerbaijan and Belarus have demonstrated similar deterioration in democratic values and abuse of human rights, the EU policies towards Belarus have been a lot more rigid that towards Azerbaijan.

2. The Quadrilogue consisted of the EP, the Council Secretariat, the Commission and the HRVP.

3. The EU external action instruments include the Development Cooperation Instrument, the European Development Fund, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, the Instrument for Cooperation with Industrialised Countries, the Instrument for Nuclear Safety Cooperation and the Instrument for Stability and the ENPI.

4. The DG DEVCO of the Commission was created as a result of merger of DG for Development (DG DEV) and DG for Aid and Cooperation – Europeaid (DG AIDCO).

5. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is mediated in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group and is not addressed by the Eastern Partnership multilateral track.

6. In 2011, the EESC issued 4 opinions (1) Eastern partnership: Energy supply: What kind of Neighbourhood Policy do we need to ensure security of supply for the EU, (2) involvement of Civil society in the Eastern Partnership, (3) EESC Opinion: The Eastern Partnership and the eastern dimension of EU policies, with emphasis on agriculture and (4) a new response to a changing Neighbourhood.