Suchergebnisse

This article is part of the special section titled Recursive Easts, Shifting Peripheries, guest edited by Pamela Ballinger. The European Neighborhood Policy (ENP), launched in 2002–2003, was presented as the EU's way of responding to the Eastern neighbours' desires for closer ties to the Union. The policy ignored, however, that if such desires did exist they were aimed at full EU membership, rather than at mere neighbourliness. Indeed, the EU's insistence that the ENP entailed neither a promise of, nor a definite ruling out of, membership, meant that the policy caught the eastern neighbours in a continuous state of ambivalent liminality. This article argues that this ambiguity at the heart of the policy is linked to the rather self-congratulatory idea of EUrope as "the club everybody wants to join," and thus to a distinction between those who were European (the EU) and those who were inscribed with a desire for becoming European (the neighbours). The neighbours were defined not by their own position but by their desire for the privileged position of the articulating (EUropean) subject. The ENP's function of arresting the neighbours in a liminal position might as such be understood as a way of continually reproducing and displaying their desire for Europe, a desire which could then be imitated also in the disenchanted populations of the EU itself.

The paper proposes a novel way in which social constructivism and rationalism might be combined in the study of the EU´s external relations. It proceeds in four steps: First, a basic model for the study of EU external policies is introduced, with its four basic elements being based on different combinations of constructivism and rationalism. Second, existing theories are categorised in accordance with the model. Third, a case study exploring the relations of three countries in the EU´s Eastern neighbourhood (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia) with the Union is introduced, through which the practical applicability of the model is demonstrated. Fourth, the paper concludes with some theoretical remarks.

"The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a recent example of an external EU policy drawn up explicitly with the objective of achieving coherence in the external policies of the EU and its Member States. Positioning the ENP in the legal-historical context of political union, this book explains why coherence has become a substantive issue in EU external relations, and why law is integral to attaining the ever-enigmatic single voice of the European Union. The text examines the role of EU external relations law in attaining a coherent neighbourhood policy and goes on to undertake an in depth analysis of the ENP, arguing that the innovative nature of the ENP in regard to coherence lies beyond the narrowly defined legal sphere, and stems primarily from its hybrid composition of hard legal, soft legal and non-legal policy instruments. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach by integrating elements of law, history and political science, EU External Relations Law and the European Neighbourhood Policy is unique in its approach to the subject. This book will be of particular interest to academics and students of EU Law, Political Science, History and International Relations as well as to practitioners engaged in the process of drafting coherent external policy"--Provided by publisher

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a recent example of an external EU policy drawn up explicitly with the objective of achieving coherence in the external policies of the EU and its Member States. Positioning the ENP in the legal-historical context of political union, this book explains why coherence has become a substantive issue in EU external relations, and why law is integral to attaining the ever-enigmatic single voice of the European Union. The text examines the role of EU external relations law in attaining a coherent neighbourhood policy and goes on to undertake an in depth ana.