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Issue 7 (Summer 2007) - Special Issue: ‘European Neighbourhood Policy’ Abstracts |
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Consolidation in Times of Crisis: The European Neighbourhood Policy as Chance for Neighbours? |
by Andreas Marchetti
The ratification crisis of the European Constitution is accompanied by an increased enlargement fatigue, prompting a revision of the EU’s foreign policy choices. The paper shows that the development of the EU’s relations with its neighbours over the past 15 years has facilitated this process. Whereas enlargement policy has long been the Union’s most efficient foreign policy tool, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is about to assume this position by incorporating central enlargement policy elements. Although the incentives offered by the ENP are of particular interest to eastern partners, development perspectives for the Mediterranean have also been enhanced.
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by Gabriella Meloni
This paper will propose a reconsideration of the term “neighbour” in the conviction that this operation is of fundamental importance in order to solve any eventual misunderstanding on its meaning and to define what the nature of a relationship of neighbourhood may imply. In particular, it will look into the literature to show that this term, far from being uncontested, fundamentally implies an “othering” practice which transcends the Christian teaching to “love one’s neighbour as oneself”. Then, it will underline that this word may have different connotations in partner countries which may go beyond a neutral indication of geographical proximity and which may not correspond to the meaning consolidated in the anglo-saxon tradition which basically refers to a neighbour as to a “fellow”. Finally, the paper will underline that the same fundamental ambiguity which marks the term here considered lies at the very core of the ENP. As a matter of fact, this policy shows persisting uncertainties on how to substantiate the relationship with neighbouring countries, whether in terms of fellowship and integration or in terms of an “other than me” who still represents a security threat.
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Values in the EU’s Neighbourhood Policy: Political Rhetoric or Reflection of a Coherent Policy? |
by Giselle Bosse
The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is often justified by references to its unprecedented emphasis on the “commitment to shared values” in future EU relations with its vicinity. Few attempts have been made, however, to critically reflect on the “values dimension” of the ENP. This article examines if the ENP can be sufficiently justified on the basis of the political values it embodies: It explores the extent to which the declared commitment to values in the ENP is based on a wider consensus at the EU-level; the changing emphasis on “shared values” in the policy over time; and the degree to which the ENP adds to institutionalising political values in future EU relations with its neighbours.
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Explaining Spanish and Polish approaches to the European Neighbourhood Policy |
by Michal Natorski
This paper analyzes Polish and Spanish proposals relative to the EU’s Southern and Eastern Dimensions. Furthermore, plausible explanations are forwarded regarding the resemblances between Spain’s and Poland’s policies towards neighbourhood: the national interests considerations based on the constructivist approach; policy entrepreneurship in the context of institutional conditions of the European Foreign Policy and the process of lessons drawing in the framework of the European Foreign Policy policy-making process.
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EU’s influence in its Eastern neighbourhood: The case of crisis management in the Southern Caucasus |
by Damien Helly
While the European Neighbourhood Policy has been largely inspired by the successive experiences of enlargement, it has also been designed partly not to replicate exactly enlargement approaches. Key differences include the existence of unresolved conflicts in the EU neighbourhood and the development of European security provisions since 1999, parallel to the traditional economic instruments of cooperation. This paper attempts to assess what lessons can be learnt from the ENP early experience regarding its impact on conflict resolution. It examines negotiations of EU economic support and peace-building efforts with South Caucasus countries and Moldova and builds upon these case studies to draw general lessons on the influence of the EU as an international actor.
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by Laure Delcour
The European Neighbourhood Policy has, from its very beginning, seized the attention of scholars and has remained high ever since on the academic agenda. Among the large number of publications already produced, many have analyzed ENP objectives, methods and influence through a comparison with EU enlargement policy toward Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990’s. This paper argues that an alternative picture of the ENP can be obtained through a comparison of policy rationale and implementation in two countries – one benefiting from the policy, Ukraine and the second having rejected it, Russia. Such comparison highlights discrepancies between (i) a discourse focusing on differentiation among countries (within and without the policy), (ii) the similarity of policy patterns and instruments proposed by the EU to Ukraine and Russia, and (iii) differences between Ukraine and Russia in policy reception, which contribute to shape two distinct modes of policy implementation (selective adaptation in the case of Russia and accommodated conditionality in the case of Ukraine).
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by Manuella Moschella
Scholars have widely used the enlargement process as a foil for assessing both the nature and the potential influence of the ENP. In this paper, I attempt to show that the ENP-enlargement comparison is flawed by the fact that the two policies pursue different finalité – association and integration respectively. The paper then privileges the comparison with the Euro-Mediterranean policy. Drawing on the ENP-EMP comparison, the paper argues that the ENP marks the shift away from policy-change to policy-level. Two implications are drawn from this finding. The first is substantive in that it points to a pragmatic international role for the EU. The second is methodological in that I argue that adopting an IPE approach to the study of the ENP bears important analytic advantages.
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by Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués
The ENP’s strong rhetoric in terms of the promotion of normative values, or “milieu goals”, has stimulated an interest in the academic community for the argument that the EU is somehow a “normative power”. This brief article will, however, sustain that the many contradictions inherent in the multifaceted EU’s foreign policy conducted in the Union’s relations with neighbouring countries make it difficult, for the time being, to fully concur with the assertion that the Union is a normative power.
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Can the discourse on “soft power” help the EU to bridge its capability-expectations gap? |
by Elsa Tulmets
Very recently, a new buzz word has appeared in official speeches in the field of the European Union (EU)’s external relations: “Soft power”. The notion was first coined for the American foreign policy and is now at the heart of EU foreign policy discourses, especially on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The ENP launched in 2003 for the new EU neighbours heavily draws on the experience of enlargement by exporting internal norms, values and policies abroad. The article explores the hypothesis that the discourse on “soft power” represents an attempt to go beyond a traditional understanding of foreign policy and of conditionality. By developing its own definition of “soft power”, the EU tries to position itself on the international stage by preferring civilian over coercive means and thus seeks to increase the ENP’s legitimacy through attraction instead of accession. Nevertheless, it will need to improve internal consistency if it wants to avoid serious criticism on the ENP and bridge its famous capability-expectations gap.
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