The idealism that engendered the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2004, later codified in the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, has since been reviewed to adapt to the turbulence that has befallen the EU and its neighbourhood. The ENP is now little more than an elegantly crafted fig leaf that purports to take a soft power approach to the EU’s outer periphery, argues the author, but in effect it inclines more towards Realpolitik. By prioritising security interests over liberal values in increasingly transactional partnerships, the EU is atomising relations with its neighbouring countries. And without the political will and a strategic vision to guide relations with the neighbours of the EU’s neighbours, the ENP remains in suspended animation.
Despite growing scholarly interest in the EU’s flagship policy towards its Eastern and Southern neighbours, serious attempts at theory-building on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) have been largely absent from the academic debate. This book aims at contributing to fill this research gap in a three-fold manner: first and foremost it aims at theorizing the ENP as such, explaining the origins, development and effectiveness of this policy. Building on this effort, it also pursues the broader objective of addressing certain shortcomings in EU external relations theory, and even beyond, in International Relations theory. Finally, it aspires to provide new insights for European policy-makers. It is one of the first volumes to provide different theoretical perspectives on the ENP by revisiting and building bridges between mainstream and critical theories, stimulating academic and policy debates and thus setting a novel, less EU-centric research agenda. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU external relations, EU foreign policy, the European Neighbourhood Policy, and more broadly in European Union Politics and International Relations.
The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has evolved into one of the European Union's major foreign policy instruments and received considerable attention. However, other EU neighbourhood policies, and their relevance for the ENP, also require examination. The Arab uprisings, civil wars in Libya and Syria, the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the crisis in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula have all brought the institutional design and tools of the ENP into question and a comparative perspective is crucial to understand EU neighbourhood policies in a wider sense. This timely book puts the ENP into context by exploring the major challenges and key lessons of the EU's other policy frameworks with neighbouring countries. Mapping the EU's bi-lateral and multilateral neighbourhood relations in comparison to the ENP and investigating the major challenges faced, it provides a comprehensive, up-to-date view of the EU's relations with its neighbours. Focusing on current affairs and future challenges, the comparison with the ENP and the lessons to be drawn, generate novel insights into the EU's closest external relations. This book will be of key interest to students and scholars studying European Politics, policies and comparative politics.
The European Neighbourhood Policy is a key part of the foreign policy of the European Union (EU), through which the EU works with its southern and eastern neighbours with a view to furthering its interests and achieving the closest possible degree of political association and economic integration. The policy is underpinned by a set of values and principles that the EU seeks to promote. The European Neighbourhood Policy – Values and Principles carries out a legal analysis of the values and principles that form the basis for the European Neighbourhood Policy – respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights (including the rights of minorities), plus the principles of conditionality, differentiation and coherence. This collection explores the instruments that the EU has deployed under the European Neighbourhood Policy to spread its values and to achieve its interests. It assesses to what extent the EU has been (and is) consistent in upholding its values in its relations with neighbouring countries, and examines how these values have been received by these countries. The book looks in particular at the nature of EU-Russia relations, seeking to identify areas of common interest as well as those of actual and potential disagreement.
What instruments does the EU have at its disposal and how can it link them in order to respond to the challenges and overcome the current fragmentation? How can the EU create bridges between the neighbours of its neighbours? This timely book takes stock of the state of the EU’s co-operation with these regions and explores how the concept might help promote security, stability and prosperity beyond the countries which are formally part of the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Over the past decade the European Union (EU) has gradually developed the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) with its neighbours. At the same time, the ‘neighbours of the EU’s neighbours’ have presented new challenges. This book addresses the EU’s broader neighbourhood, comprising of the ENP countries and the neighbours of its neighbours. With specific focus on Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, it discusses trans-regional policy issues that arise from the EU’s relations with regions beyond the ENP. Based on an interdisciplinary, policy-oriented approach, this volume explores major political, legal, security and socio-economic challenges and identifies opportunities for cooperation across the EU’s broader neighbourhood. This book will be of interest to students, experts and scholars interested in EU affairs and politics, international relations, EU and international law, diplomacy and area studies.
Contributors offer new approaches to the study of the European Neighbourhood Policy. While the main emphasis is on the empirical assessment of the impact that the ENP has had to-date and on the factors that have shaped its implementation, it also provides new theoretical and methodological perspectives on how to study this policy area.
Several events in the past few years have dramatically shown how the interests of European citizens are directly affected by the stability, security and prosperity of their neighbouring regions. At the same time, the European Union and its member states face many challenges and dilemmas in designing and pursuing policies that not only effectively promote these interests, but also build stronger partnerships with neighbouring countries based on the values on which the Union is founded. First the Arab revolts and then Russia’s assertiveness in the eastern neighbourhood prompted reviews by the EU of its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), in 2011 and 2015, respectively. These reviews, in turn, have renewed scholarly interest in the ENP. By deliberately focusing on the recent literature (since 2011), this book by CEPS identifies the factors that explain the (lack of) effectiveness and coherence of the ENP. This exercise has resulted in a rich overview of and deep reflection on a wide variety of ENP-related themes, such as conditionality and leverage, the interests vs values dilemma and the role of third parties. The study identifies where there is consensus among scholars and where perspectives and judgements differ. It also identifies important gaps in the literature where further research is needed. This book will be of interest to a wide audience of officials, diplomats, parliamentarians, researchers at think tanks, civil society organisations, university teachers, trainers, students and journalists who want to know more about the challenges and dilemmas arising from the ENP. The work has been carried out by a team of researchers from CEPS in Brussels, with the support of the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
The Routledge Handbook on the European Neighbourhood Policy provides a comprehensive overview of the EU’s most important foreign policy instrument, provided by leading experts in the field. Coherently structured and adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this handbook covers the most important themes, developments and dynamics in the EU’s neighbourhood policy framework through a series of cutting-edge contributions. With chapters from a substantial number of scholars who have been influential in shaping the study of the ENP, this handbook serves to encourage debates which will hopefully produce more conceptual as well as neighbourhood-specific perspectives leading to enriching future studies on the EU’s policies towards its neighbourhood. It will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students, scholars and professionals developing knowledge in the fields of EU/European Studies, European Foreign Policy Analysis, Area studies, EU law, and more broadly in political economy, political science, comparative politics and international relations.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union expectations were high that a 'new world order' was emerging in which Russia and the other former Soviet republics would join the Western community of nations. That has not occurred. This volume explains the reasons for this failure and assesses likely future developments in that relationship
