The European Neighbourhood Policy and conflict management: a comparison of Moldova and the Caucasus

In: Ethnopolitics, Band 8, Heft 3-4, S. 369-386

Abstract

Conflict management is an area in which the EU has only recently begun to develop a profile, in particular through its involvement in the Western Balkans. The development of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has added a momentum to the management or resolution of the unresolved conflicts in the Former Soviet Union. This is a potentially risky undertaking. The ENP was not designed to address these conflicts; it remains politically, institutionally and financially under-equipped to do so, and it faces obvious external constraints, such as the role of Russia in the region. Through the ENP, the EU has assumed greater visibility in conflict management. By giving rise to local and international expectations, the EU runs the risk of becoming entangled in conflicts that it lacks the capacity to address, and of exposing its weaknesses as a foreign policy acotr. The comparison of Moldova and Georgia spells out the scope and limitations of the ENP in the area of conflict management. In the case of Moldova, domestic support for closer relations with the EU and a willingness to discuss the status of Transnistria have allowed the ENP and other EU instruments to shape the process of conflict management. By contrast, the case of Georgia illustrates the scope for instrumentalization and unintended consequences resulting from a loose policy framework. (Ethnopolitics)