European Union and its Eastern Neighbours

<p>This book explores the EU’s relations with its eastern neighbours. Based on extensive original research – including surveys focus-groups a study of school essays and in-depth interviews with key people in Belarus Ukraine Moldova Russia and in Brussels – it assesses why the EU’s initiatives have received limited legitimacy in the neighbourhood. <br>The European Neighbourhood Policy of 2004 and the subsequent Eastern Partnership of 2009 heralded a new form of relations with the EU’s neighbours – <em>partnership</em> based on joint ownership and shared values – which would complement if not entirely replace the EU’s traditional governance framework used for enlargement. These initiatives have however received a mixed response from the EU’s eastern neighbours. The book shows how the key elements of <em>partnership</em> have been forged mainly by the EU rather than jointly and examines the idea and application of <em>external governance</em> and how this has been over-prescriptive and confusing.</p>