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Abstract
This article analyzes the extent, substance, and underlying objectives of the European Union's (EU) new neighborhood policy in response to the Arab Spring. It questions whether the new policy approach constitutes a major policy shift or is just “old wine in new wineskins.” The article discusses the causes for much continuity and limited change in the new policy from a neo-institutionalist perspective. It concludes that both continuity and change primarily result from constraints inherent to the EU. In particular, the interaction between the Commission and the Council shapes a policy that corresponds with the normative aspirations and realist interests of the EU but hardly with the needs and expectations of the partner states.
Notes
1. Ricardo Gomez, “The EU's Mediterranean policy: Common foreign policy by the back door?,” in John Peterson, ed., A Common Foreign Policy for Europe (London: Routledge, 1998), 133–151; Michelle Pace, “Norm Shifting from EMP to ENP: The EU as a Norm Entrepreneur in the South?” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 20(4): 659–675 (2007); Paul J. Cardwell, “EuroMed, European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean: Overlapping Policy Frames in the EU's Governance of the Mediterranean.” Journal of Common Market Studies 49(2): 219–241 (2011).
2. Raffaella A. Del Sarto and Tobias Schumacher, “From EMP to ENP: What's at Stake with the European Neighbourhood Policy towards the Southern Mediterranean?” European Foreign Affairs Review 10: 17–38 (2005).
3. Patricia Bauer, “The Transition of Egypt in 2011: A New Springtime for the European Neighbourhood Policy?” Perspectives on European Politics and Society 12(4): 420–439 (2011).
4. European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joint Communication to the European Council, the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity with the Southern Mediterranean. Brussels, March 8, 2011, COM(2011) 200 final; European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joint Communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A New Response to a Changing Neighbourhood. Brussels, March 25, 2011, COM(2011) 303.
5. James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, “The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life.” The American Political Science Review 78(3): 734–749 (1984); James G. March and and Johan P. Olsen, Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics. (London: Macmillan and New York: Free Press, 1989); Johan P. Olsen, Governing Through Institution Building: Institutional Theory and Recent European Experiments in Democratic Organization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
6. Ian Manners, “Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?” Journal of Common Market Studies 40(2): 235–258 (2002), Adrian Hyde-Price, “A ‘Tragic Actor? A Realist Perspective on ‘Ethical Power Europe.’” International Affairs 84(1): 29–44 (2008).
7. Gomez, The EU's Mediterranean Policy.
8. Annette Jünemann, “Zwei Schritte vor, einer zurück: Die Entwicklung der europäischen Mittelmeerpolitik von den ersten Assoziierungsabkommen bis zur Gründung einer Union für das Mittelmeer,” in Rudolf Hrbek and Hartmut Marhold, eds., Der Mittelmeerraum als Region, Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung Tübingen, Occasional Papers No. 35 (2009), 26–59.
9. Annette Jünemann, “Zehn Jahre Barcelona-Prozess: Eine gemischte Bilanz.” Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 45, 7–14 (2005); Muriel Asseburg, “Barcelona Plus 10: Gescheiterter Aufbruch in der Euromediterranen Partnerschaft,” SWP-Aktuell 57 (2005) (Berlin: SWP):
10. Commission of the European Communities, Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament: Wider Europe—Neighbourhood: A New Framework for Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours. Brussels, March 11, 2003, COM(2003) 104 final; Commission of the European Communities, Communication from the Commission: European Neighbourhood Policy Strategy Paper. Brussels, May 12, 2004, COM(2004) 373 final; Del Sarto and Schumacher, “From EMP to ENP”; Judith Kelley, “New Wine in Old Wineskins: Promoting Political Reforms through the New European Neighbourhood Policy.” Journal of Common Market Studies 44(1): 29–55 (2006); Jüneman, “Zwei Schritte vor.”
11. Del Sarto and Schumacher, “From EMP to ENP,” 27; see also Cardwell, “EuroMed.”
12. Bauer, this issue.
13. Bauer, “The Transition of Egypt.”
14. Michelle Pace, “Paradoxes and Contradictions in Promotion in the Mediterranean: The Limits of EU Normative Power.” Democratization 16(1): 39–58 (2009).
15. Federica Bicchi, “The Union for the Mediterranean, or the Changing Context of Euro-Mediterranean Relations.” Mediterranean Politics 16(1): 3–19 (2011).
16. Ibid.; Oliver Schlumberger, “The Ties that do not Bind: The Union for the Mediterranean and the Future of Euro-Arab Relations.” Mediterranean Politics 16(1): 135–153 (2011).
17. Pace, “Paradoxes and Contradictions”; Brieg T. Powel, “A Clash of Norms: Normative Power and EU Democracy Promotion in Tunisia.” Democratization 16(1): 193–214 (2009); Cardwell, “EuroMed.
18. European Commission and High Representative, “A Partnership for Democracy.”
19. Ibid., 2.
20. Ibid., 5.
21. Ibid., 5–11.
22. Ibid., 11.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., 12–13.
25. European Commission and High Representative, “A New Response.”
26. Ibid., 3.
27. Ibid., 3–4.
28. Ibid., 2–12.
29. Ibid., 8.
30. Ibid., 21.
31. Ibid., 8–9.
32. Ibid., 9–10.
33. Ibid., 17.
34. Ibid.,18.
35. European Commission (2011 a), Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council Establishing a European Neighbourhood Instrument. Brussels, 7.12.2011, COM(2011) 839 final.
36. Ibid., 3.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid., Art. 2.
39. Ibid., Art. 3.
40. Ibid., 9.
41. Ibid., Art. 7(1).
42. Ibid., Art. 4(1).
43. Ibid., Art. 17.
44. Ibid., Art. 18.
45. Ibid., 2.
46. European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joint Communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Delivering on a new European Neighbourhood Policy. Brussels, May 15, 2012, JOIN(2012) 14 final.
47. (European Commission and High Representative, “A Partnership for Democracy”; European Commission and High Representative, “A New Response.”
48. Bendiek, Annegret, The ENP: Visibility and Perceptions in the Partner Countries. Working Paper FG 2, January 2008, Berlin (SWP).
49. Demmelhuber, Thomas, The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and Its Implementation in the Southern Mediterranean.The Case of Egypt. ZEI Discussion Paper 170/2007, Bonn (Zentrum für Europäische Integrationsforschung); Bauer, “The Transition of Egypt.”
50. March and Olsen “The New Institutionalism”; March and Olsen “Rediscovering Institutions”; Olsen “Governing Through Institution Building.”
51. I subsume here the HR, since the office holder is a member of the Commission.
52. Sandra Lavenex, Dirk Lehmkuhl, and Nicole Wichman, “Modes of External Governance: A Cross-National and Cross-Sectoral Comparison.” Journal of European Public Policy 16(6): 813–833 (2009).
53. Eva Heidbreder, The Impact of Expansion on European Union Institutions (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
54. Manners, “Normative power Europe”; Federica Bicchi, “‘Our Size Fits All’: Normative Power Europe and the Mediterranean.” Journal of European Public Policy 13(2): 286–303 (2006).
55. E.g., Hyde-Price, “A ‘Tragic Actor?’”; Peter Seeberg “The EU as a Realist Actor in Normative Clothes: EU Democracy Promotion in Lebanon and the European Neighbourhood Policy.” Democratization 16(1): 81–99 (2009).
56. Helen Sjursen, “What Kind of Power?” Journal of European Public Policy 13(2), 169–181 (2006).
57. See also Pace, “Norm shifting” and Pace, “Paradoxes and Contradictions.”
58. Peter Burnell and Oliver Schlumberger, “Promoting Democracy—Promoting Autocracy? International Politics and National Political Regimes.” Contemporary Politics 16(1): 1–15 (2010); Bauer, “The Transition of Egypt”; Tanja A. Börzel and Vera van Hüllen, “Good Governance and Bad Neighbours. The End of Transformative Power Europe?” Unpublished Paper (2011), (Freie Universität Berlin).