The political foundations for the EU’s partnership with the Kyrgyz Republic were established in the 1999 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA).  The agreement aimed at strengthening the links between the Kyrgyz Republic and the EU.

Taking into account development of bilateral relations and emerging of new areas of interaction, the EU and the Kyrgyz Republic negotiated the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA), which was initialled in July 2019. Once the legal procedures are finalised a  proposal for a Council Decision will be launched to pave the way for translations and then signature. The new agreement is expected to be signed in 2021.

The Kyrgyz Republic is also a partner in the new European Union Strategy on Central Asia: New opportunities for a strong partnership strategy, adopted in 2019.

EU holds annual political dialogues with Kyrgyzstan. Cooperation Council, at level of Foreign Ministers, focuses mainly on political matters, trade, economic and investment issues, as well on regional and international issues.

Cooperation Committees, a more technical meeting at level of Deputy Managing Director for the EU and Deputy Minister for Kyrgyzstan, focuses on democracy, rule of law, civil liberties and human rights, trade, energy, environment, bilateral development cooperation. It aims at taking stock of the progress/slowdown of Kyrgyzstan in carrying out political, social and economic reforms.

Economic activity between the EU and the Kyrgyz Republic is on the rise. Total trade with the EU amounted at approximately EUR 1152 million in 2019.

The recently adopted EPCA and new EU Strategy on Central Asia see trade and economic relations as an important area of cooperation, which still has a significant potential for development and strengthening the wellbeing of people. The EU also provides funds to various projects in the regions and nationally.

The organisation of a first EU-Central Asia economic forum in Bishkek, tentatively scheduled in 2021, would provide an opportunity to boost trade and investment between the Central Asia and the EU and to discuss post-Covid economic recovery.

The Kyrgyz Republic benefits from the EU's Generalised Scheme of Preferences plus (GSP+), the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance (GSP+). It provides additional tariff preferences to developing countries which are vulnerable due to a lack of diversification and insufficient integration within the international trading system, when exporting to the European Union (EU).

The GSP+ status allows the Kyrgyz Republic to strengthen its economy by exporting 6200 products to the European Union without any tariffs/with no tax duties regime. To benefit from GSP+, a product must either be wholly obtained in the Kyrgyz Republic, or must have undergone sufficient manufacturing, working or processing in the Kyrgyz Republic.

As a GSP+ beneficiary, Kyrgyzstan is under a legal obligation to maintain the ratification of the 27 conventions and to ensure their effective implementation. Kyrgyzstan’s performance in this regard is subject to an enhanced monitoring mechanism by the EU side.

The monitoring mechanism makes use of several tools. The first is the "scorecard", a table summarising the salient shortcomings of the country in the implementation of the conventions. Secondly, the Commission establishes a "dialogue on GSP+ compliance" with Kyrgyzstan, drawing its attention to the areas identified in the scorecard. The results are  included in the report on the compliance of GSP+ beneficiaries with the relevant criteria that the Commission has to transmit to the European Parliament and the European Council every two years.

Here you can find additional information regarding the Generalised Scheme of Preferences.

For additional information on the certification criteria, phytosanitary and rules of origins requirements which products have to fulfil for export to the EU, please visit the website of the Help Desk of the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission: http://exporthelp.europa.eu/thdapp/index.htm

For information on how to export goods to a particular Member State of the European Union, please consider contacting its Embassy accredited to the Kyrgyz Republic. The full list of the Embassies of the EU Member States may be found here.

Citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic may also contact the call center of the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic by a short phone number: 1220.

Useful documents:

• Guide for users about the EU rules of origin for the GSP and GSP+. File may be downloaded in English, Russian and Kyrgyz languages.
• Factsheet about the GSP+ in English language.
• List of Kyrgyz goods under GSP+ in Russian and Kyrgyz languages.
• Brochure on GSP+ in Kyrgyz and Russian languages.

More information on trade with Central Asia/Kyrgyzstan:

https://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/regions/central-asia/

The recently adopted new EU Strategy on Central Asia  includes plans for human rights dialogue with all five Central Asian countries. This dialogue is vital for:

• discussing questions of mutual interest and enhancing cooperation;
• raising the concerns of the EU on human rights;
• gathering information and launching initiatives to improve the human rights situation where required.

The EU also organises civil society seminars, attracting people from the community of human rights experts.

In the regional context the human rights situation in Kyrgyz Republic is much better . However, during the 10th EU-Kyrgyz Republic Human Rights Dialogue, which took place by video conference on 24 September 2020, challenges for human rights and freedoms stemming from the Covid-19 crisis were raised, such as high increase of domestic violence, including violence against children, as well the restrictions on independent media and information circulation in general.

Kyrgyzstan faces many environmental challenges, including waste and water management, land degradation and pollution. Since 2016, the country is developing its new environmental code, for which the adoption is still ongoing.

 The EU encourages Kyrgyzstan to strengthen environmental governance by joining and implementing multilateral environmental agreements. The EU calls Kyrgyzstan to cooperate with the downstream countries in the Central Asia region.

Regional cooperation on environment takes place under the EU-Central Asia Platform for Environment and Water Co-operation. The EU-CA High Level Conference on Environment, Water and Climate Change took take place in Uzbekistan on 24 and 25 January 2019. It identified the following priorities for cooperation:

• environmental governance;
• sustainable consumption and production/circular economy;
• water resources management;
• climate change adaptation/mitigation.

A new phase of the WECOOP project (WECOOP III) that supports the work of the EU-Central Asia Platform for Environment and Water Co-operation has recently been signed. The last Working Group took place on 12-13 February 2020 in Brussels.

The Kyrgyz Republic signed the Paris Agreement on 21 September 2016. The Kyrgyz Parliament adopted the law for its ratification on 17 October 2019, and President Sooronbay Jeenbekov signed the law on 12 November 2019.