Novel Solutions to Resolve the Conflicts in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood. College of Europe Policy Brief #2.18, February 2018

> The insecurity caused by the unresolved conflicts in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood requires immediate solutions. > To date, the schemes designed for resolving the Abkhazian, South Ossetian, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistrian conflicts have proven unsuccessful. > Against the background of tensions between the US/EU and Russia, novel solutions hinging on security and political confidence-building measures, and political, economic and social remedies are advised. > Confidence-building measures include, among others, institutionalizing high-level meetings, modifying the OSCE Minsk Group, safeguarding the demilitarized zones and sending a permanent monitoring to Nagorno-Karabakh. Additional measures require creating a longer-term EU-Russia monitoring mission for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, adding a ‘civilian’ ‘wing’ to the peacekeeping mission in Transnistria, capping defence expenditures and armaments and using preemptive and preventive measures for all conflicts. > In terms of additional remedies, banning ‘hate speech’, re-shaping the existing economic patterns and supporting SMEs, as well as paving the way for visa-free travel to Abkhazians and South Ossetians and fostering infrastructural links would be useful measures. > The recommendations aim at achieving the type of ‘sustainable peace’ that the EU champions in its Global Strategy

Towards constitutionalism for the Republic of Armenia

Syuzanna Vasilya

The Integration Crisis in the Netherlands: the Causes and the New Policy Measures

The Netherlands has been known as the most open and tolerant European country where immigrants belonging to different ethnic groups, religious confession and sexual orientation could find a safe haven. However, over the past years, this image has been shattered. This chapter combines theory, practice and policy in order to reveal the reasons, nature and dynamics of the integration ‘crisis’ in the Netherlands, which is closely tied to the ‘immigration’ issue. The study, firstly, retrieves the factors from political psychology, institutional political science and the micro-theory of securitization and tests them against the case-study – the Netherlands. While showing that each and every one of them are relevant, it claims that no complete understanding of the Dutch ‘crisis’ can be achieved unless the factors are combined. Secondly, it zooms out the newly devised/revised Dutch policy measures per public domain and assesses them by stipulating on their implications and trends. It suggests that if the Dutch government does not adopt an integrated approach the intended positive actions might become replete with negative consequences. Lastly, the chapter provides policy advice, which could be transferable to other European countries experiencing a similar integration ‘crisis’

The EU's promotion of 'Regional cooperation' in the South Caucasus

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