From atlantic-community.org: The EU should draw on NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program, as an example of a successful framework to be adopted for aspiring member states in the Balkans. If implemented as part of an extended offer, this framework could link ESDP with Neighborhood Policy, thereby creating incentives for cooperation…

Such an institutionalized approach would offer even more prospects if implemented as part of an extended offer, i.e. broadened to other addressees of the European Union’s Neighborhood Program. By linking ESDP with Neighborhood Policy, this might even help to improve one of its often criticized weaknesses – namely a lack of incentives for co-operation – despite the explicit intention to encourage reform processes in Europe’s wider periphery. Such a link could be successful in broadening the potential capabilities available for future ESDP missions, as the PfP has already been helping NATO in its attempt to gain reliable and interoperable Partners for its own crisis management.  (photo: NATO)