European Neighbourhood Policy in the Mashreq Countries: Enhancing Prospects for Reform. CEPS Working Documents No. 229, 1 September 2005

This report assesses ways in which the Action Plan process that has been launched under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) could become a more effective driver of political and economic change in the Mashreq region (covering Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories), compared with the modest results from the Barcelona process to date. The development of the ENP has already provided a valuable systemic/institutional advance in Euro-Med relations and has been an important confidence-building measure in an increasingly uncertain political environment. But it has yet to provide momentum for economic, political and social advance in the partner states. Key elements in making the Action Plan process more effective would be the following: · The Commission needs to deepen the policy content of the ENP with sketches of different degrees of desirable EU acquis compliance as a function of different economic structures and capabilities of the partner states. · The task of policy-shaping in different sectors of the Action Plans with the partner states needs to be shared by the Commission with other international organisations, most importantly the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). · The policy-shaping recommendations in support of the economic parts of the Action Plans should be explicitly linked to financial or market-access incentives (or both) on offer from the EU and international financial institutions. The promotion of political reform in the partner states is a more delicate affair. Yet there is still some room for ‘positive conditionality’ if the Commission were to define more substantively the package of incentives that are offered to partner states

From Barcelona Process to Neighbourhood Policy: Assessments and Open Issues. CEPS Working Documents No. 220, 1 March 2005

The Barcelona process so far has been a valuable systemic/institutional advance in Euro-Med relations and a confidence-building measure on a large scale. But it has not been a sufficient driving force to have created a momentum of economic, political and social advance in the partner states. It is therefore quite plausible that the EU should seek some new advance – through the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) – to build on the positive features of Barcelona and so try to introduce some new driving force. The Action Plans currently being adopted seek to make the often vague intentions of the Association Agreements of the Barcelona process more operational by linking them to either domestic policy programmes of the partner state or to EU policy norms and standards as an external anchor. In this paper we first crystallise alternative approaches for the ENP to become a real driving force under the headings of ‘conditionality’ and ‘socialisation’. The conditionality concept would mean that the EU sets out i) what incentives it offers, and ii) the conditions on which these incentives would be delivered. The socialisation concept relies essentially on a learning process that comes from the extensive interaction between actors in the partner states and the EU, which induces the partner states to engage in policy reforms that are to a degree modelled on EU norms or derive some inspiration from them. For the EU to become a driving force for reform in the region also requires that it does not have to face an uphill struggle against negative tendencies, for example in the widening and deepening of radical Islam – and here the issue of coherence in the approaches of the EU and US together is paramount

The Promotion of Regional Economic Integration in the EU’s Neighbourhood: CEFTA 2006 and the Agadir Agreement. Bruges Regional Integration & Global Governance Paper 5/2009

Regional integration scores alluringly high on the hit list of the most promising cures for the world’s major problems. Undoubtedly, the European Union has considerable experience in developing a sophisticated regional integration scheme – but does it possess the ‘magic formula’ for fostering integration in other parts of the world? This paper asks how and why the European Union promotes regional economic integration in its neighbourhood and to what extent it is successful. We argue that as a ‘normative power’ the EU aims both at exporting its norms and values and at increasing its security by stabilising its neighbourhood. We assess the EU’s success in promoting the regional trade agreements located in the Western Balkans (CEFTA 2006) and the Mediterranean (Agadir Agreement). The findings of these two case studies show that the EU pursues different political objectives with its support on a general political level as well as through concrete financial and technical assistance programmes. Although the existence of an EU membership perspective has an influence, the Union is not necessarily more successful in promoting regional economic integration among (potential) candidate countries

Russia: a Euro-Pacific power? Goals, strategies and perspectives of Moscow’s East Asia policy

Russia has been working since the mid-2000s to enhance its political, economic and military position in East Asia and establish itself as a Euro-Pacific power. Behind this development stands the wish to profit from the region’s economic dynamism, modernise Russia’s backward eastern regions and underline its claim to the status of a global power. Moscow can already claim successes for its East Asia policy. It has succeeded in expanding its relations with most of the East Asian nations and in joining important regional forums. Here the Kremlin is pursuing a dual strategy: expanding its “strategic partnership” with China but at the same time diversifying its relationships – rather than continuing to depend on Beijing as a “door-opener” in East Asia as it did in the 1990s. Russia has also succeeded in increasing its trade volume with East Asia, which has become its second trading region after Europe. Yet Russia’s prospects of regaining its great power role in East Asia are limited. Without improving relations with Washington and Tokyo the political diversification strategy remains incomplete, while growing power asymmetry with China could see Russia edged into a junior partner role. But the greatest hindrance to Moscow’s Euro-Pacific ambitions is Russia’s integration into the East Asian economy almost exclusively as a raw material supplier. Faced with increasing tensions with the West, Moscow threatens to play the “East Asia card”. But a substantial eastward reorientation would tend to harm Russia’s economic modernisation and the implementation of its political great power ambitions. (Autorenreferat

The Impact of EU Enlargement on the Euro-Med Partnership. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5 No. 23 July 2005

[From the introduction]. This essay assesses the impact of the 2004 EU enlargement on the aims of the Euro-Med Partnership and the prospects for its success. Does the Mediterranean policy of an enlarged Europe herald a new era of foreign policy behavior—as stated in the Barcelona Declaration—or does it represent the continued politics of power and domination? Either way, will the net impact be a stabilizing one, enhancing regional security and economic prosperity, or will it be destabilizing, widening the gap between Europe and its southern neighbors