ÒDoes the European Neighbourhood Policy Make a Difference? Policy Patterns and Reception in Ukraine and RussiaÓ

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 1990Õs. This paper argues that an alternative picture of the ENP can be obtained through a comparison of policy rationale and implementation in two countries Ð 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).European Neighbourhood Policy, Transfer, Reception, Conditionality, Adaptation, Socialization

The 2015 ENP Review: Beyond Stocktaking, the Need for a Political Strategy. College of Europe Policy Brief #1.15, December 2015

Executive Summary. The 2015 ENP Review offers the most extensive revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy ever since it was launched. > The Review signals a welcome shift in the EU’s policy approach. It overcomes the initial EUcentric approach focussing on the EU’s own experience and previous policies (first and foremost enlargement) and places partner countries’ aspirations and needs at the core of the revised neighbourhood policy. > However, the Review falls short of sketching out a real and much-needed strategic vision and of providing political impetus to the neighbourhood policy. > It remains also unclear how the EU intends to strike a balance between values and interests in the revised policy. > All this needs to be addressed in the next steps, either in the forthcoming discussions with the partner countries or in the upcoming positions of the EU’s institutions and policy-makers

The EU and Russia’s modernisation: one partnership, two views

Over the past year, ‘modernisation’ has emerged as a buzzword in the EU-Russia partnership, apparently giving flesh to a relationship that was largely said to be stalling before a new initiative, the Partnership for Modernisation, was launched in June 2010. The rationale for this project is similar to that underpinning the EU-Russia strategic partnership: a combination of strong interdependence and high complementarity between partners

Political Changes in Armenia: a Litmus Test for the European Union

Although they were essentially driven by domestic factors, the political events that unfolded in Armenia in April-May 2018 bear strong implications for external actors, particularly for the European Union (EU). This is because the EU regards itself as a promoter of human rights, democracy and the rule of law worldwide, especially in its neighbourhood. As part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) launched in 2004, the partner countries' effective commitment to 'shared values' (i.e., democracy, human rights and the rule of law) is a prerequisite to closer relations with the EU. Therefore, whether and how the European Union can diffuse its democratic values are crucial questions to gauge its influence in its vicinity

1989, bringing in a global Europe?

Whilst 1989 is widely acknowledged as a watershed in international relations, it is also regarded as a major upheaval in the course of European integration since its very beginning in the 1950’s. The nature of this regard, however, has overwhelmingly been univocal. The relationship between 1989 and the EU is commonly considered as a one-way process, with communism being finally “dissolved” into EU integration. Moreover, changes in the European integration process since 1989 have often been analyzed per se; there have been few attempts, if any, to connect 1989 and the EC/EU in a comprehensive way. The paper questions the unambiguous, linear and one-way character of the prevailing interpretations relating to the impact of 1989 on the European integration process. Through highlighting and discussing several dialectical trends, it sheds light on complex, multifaceted and open processes which call for re-assessing the impact of 1989 on Europe and the way the European Union has influenced 1989 and “managed” post-1989. It concludes that while the EU has been a major vector of change in CEE countries, 1989 has also induced wide-ranging, profound and long-term transformations on the European integration process, the exact impact of which is still difficult to assess. The EU picture resulting both from 1989 and from the choices made in the 1990’s is thus much more blurred and ambivalent

Armenia is becoming an important test-case for relations between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union

Armenia is one of the four members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which was formally established at the beginning of 2015. Laure Delcour and Kataryna Wolczuk write that pressure from Russia following Armenia’s growing engagement with the EU left the country with little choice but to sign up to the Eurasian Economic Union. However they argue that Armenia’s continued interest in pursuing cooperation with the EU will represent an important test-case for the co-existence between the EU and the EEU in the post-Soviet space

From principle to practice? The resilience–local ownership nexus in the EU Eastern Partnership policy

By emphasizing concepts such as resilience and local ownership, recent updates in the EU's foreign policy strategy have marked a narrative turn and signaled a shift in EU external governance toward its neighborhood. This article has two aims. First, we unpack the EU's conceptual understanding of resilience and local ownership as reflected in its recent strategic documents. Second, we examine the implications of the EU's narrative turn on actual policy practices in Eastern Partnership countries. We highlight a gap between the EU's broad understanding of resilience and local ownership and the narrow operationalization of these concepts in the EU's eastern policy. The article shows that the EU continued relying on the previously established policy frameworks, according to which resilience develops through approximation with EU templates. This strong path dependence precluded any effective policy turn toward local ownership

The Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: What Role Now for the EU in the South Caucasus after Nagorno-Karabakh?

The military takeover of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan and the forced displacement of over 100,000 Karabakh Armenians are a failure of EU diplomacy. The EU's unwillingness to prevent Azerbaijan's actions raises doubts about its ability to act effectively in the international arena. If there is no deterrence to additional threats, peaceful conflict resolution will further erode. The EU can only be a relevant peace actor if member states like Germany and France take more responsibility in conflict resolution