The European Union and Kazakhstan have been partners since the country's independence. Cooperation, initially focused on trade and investments has been gradually extended to other important areas including Energy, Transport, Education as well as Justice and Home Affairs.

The main document, underpinning the EU partnership with Kazakhstan, is the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which came into force in 1999. In November 2006 a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of energy between the EU and Kazakhstan has been signed establishing the basis for enhanced cooperation in this sector, followed by a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of transport in 2009.

In a Joint Statement endorsed by the EU-Kazakhstan Cooperation Council in November 2009, it was agreed to further strengthen EU-Kazakhstan relations through the conclusions of a new enhanced agreement replacing the 1999 PCA.

Beyond developing their bilateral relations, the EU and Kazakhstan also cooperate in the framework of a regional approach which includes all the five Central Asia republics. The European Union and Central Asia Strategy for a New Partnership was adopted in June 2007. In June 2010, the European Council and the European Commission published their Joint Progress Report on the implementation of the EU Central Asia Strategy [210 KB] .

In addition to the assistance under the Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI) , Kazakhstan participates in several ongoing regional and thematic programmes.