Paper for the conference: The EU and its Neighbours - In Search for New Forms of Partnership
Sounio – Greece, July 3-6. 2008
Dr. Iris Kempe
Director, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Regional Office South Caucasus, Tbilisi
Executive Summary
For the last four years, the European Union has been conducting neighbourhood policy in an international environment that is significantly different than the one in which the policy was conceived. Since 2004 the strategic map of Europe has been dominated by three paradigm changes: domestic changes in Russia, regime changes in key countries in Eastern Europe, and obstacles within the European Union itself; specifically, the EU’s inability to complete institutional reforms and an overall enlargement fatigue. These differences mean that the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), as it presently stands, will not reach the goals that have been set for it. The policy needs new approaches, new forms of partnership.
The ENP does not offer what key states in Eastern Europe most desire: prospects of eventual membership as a goal for their domestic transition and international orientation. The strategic gaps in the ENP led to several reform proposals, all driven by member states. The balance between eastern neighbours and southern neighbours is also off centre. The EU must either come to terms with expansion over the long term or offer an alternative programme with sufficient substance that the eastern neighbours find attractive.
The extension of European values and of co-operation beyond the present borders of the European Union will remain a pressing item on the agenda, quite independent of the EU’s internal debates on institutional reform and possible enlargement. An updated ENP could enable the Union to engage its neighbours flexibly, keeping options open for closer future integration, and ensuring that the present goodwill toward the EU does not dissipate among small-bore initiatives and quibbles about which region matters more.