Interview 180: The European Union's Role in Central Asia

Michael Emerson is a Senior Research Fellow at the Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies, which is an independent think-tank focused on probing European Union issues through research, debates and publications. This is the second outtake of a 20-minute interview from February 21, 2011. Emerson discusses how the European Union crafts its policies with Central Asian countries by balancing its energy needs with its concern over democratic values and human rights.

Emerson says the "multiplicity of objectives of energy security, strategic security and political balance ... are firmly embedded in the foreign policy objectives of the European Union" with the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.