Exploring the European Union’s rationalities of governing: the case of cross-border mobility in the eastern partnership

ABSTRACT

This article examines the case of cross-border mobility between the European Union (EU) and the states of the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The issue of managing mobility exposes a wider series of continuities and disconnects in the EU’s attempts at extending its rationalities of governing into the neighbourhood. Using the case studies of Visa Liberalisation Actions Plans and the Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM), this article argues that while the EU’s rationalities of governing remain largely disciplinary, the study of practices reveals emergent rationalities of ‘governing at a distance’, which increasingly draw on the interplay of both the EU interests and partners’ needs.

KEYWORDS:

• European union
• eastern neighbourhood
• EUBAM
• Visa liberalisation action plans
• governmentality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Igor Merheim-Eyre is a doctoral researcher at the School of Politics & International Relations, and a visiting scholar at the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven. His research employs post-structuralist analyses, and focuses on EU border management, including migration and visa policy, and cross-border mobility between the EU and its eastern neighbours. Igor is regular commentator on issues of wider European security, and the winner of a prestigious 2016 University of Kent research prize.

Notes

1. The “EU” refers to the whole (and changing) constellation of Member States, institutions, strategies, and instruments used to administer the EU-28. Consequently, the EU's common eastern border should not be understood as a singular “institution” or a wall, but as a complex space of power relations, through a changing constellation of agents and procedures. As this article contends, this picture is further complicated by the extension of EU rationalities of governing into the neighbouring states, and their increasing participation in the management of the EU's borders.

2. Originally developed by Foucault in his lectures at the Collège de France (1977–1978), the concept of governmentality (the conduct of governing conduct, see Foucault 2007, 186) sought to historically situate the changes in thinking about government as a result of the advancement of liberal democratic government that evolved from more classical liberal approaches in the Western world (mainly, North-Western Europe and North America).

3. According to Dean (2010), governmentalisation can be understood as the replacement of one economy of power with another, for example, the shift from the feudalism of the Middle Ages to liberal and neoliberal modes of governing

4. Interview with EU Member State official 2; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

5. An important example of this can be found in Kostanyan (2017) on the differing levels of discretion available to the EU External Action Service.

6. See Korosteleva (2017) for a more detailed discussion on the reverse meanings of politics and politicisation.

7. Interview with EU official 3; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

8. Interview with NGO expert 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

9. Interview with EU official 2; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

10. According to the European Commission (2015a), there were over 53,000 asylum application in 2013 alone. Interview with EU official 6; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

11. Interview with EU Member State official 2; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

12. The EU's Integrated Border Management (IBM), according to Hobbing, is a ‘multi-layered compilation of provisions’ (2005, 10) that guides the management of common EU external border and composed of five main components: common operational coordination and cooperation mechanism; common integrated risk analysis; personnel and inter-operational equipment; common corpus of legislation; and burden-sharing between the Member States and the Union.

13. Interview with EU Member State official 2; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

14. Interview with EU official 6; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

15. Because Moldovan officials do not have access to the breakaway territory of Transnistria, Moldova's exact population cannot be fully verified, despite the 2004 census.

16. Interview with Moldovan official 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

17. Interview with EU Member State official 6; June 2015, Chisinau (Moldova).

18. Interview with EU official 8; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

19. Interview with EU Member State official 2; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

20. Interview with EU Member State official 2; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

21. Interview with EU Member State official 3; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

22. Interview with Moldovan official 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

23. Interview with EU official 3; June 2015; Brussels (Belgium).

24. Interview with Moldovan official 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

25. Interview with Moldovan official 3; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

26. Interview with EU official 8; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

27. Interview with EU Member State official 5; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

28. Interview with EU official 8; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

29. Interview with EU Member State official 5; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

30. Interview with NGO expert 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

31. Interview with Moldovan official 3; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

32. Interview with Moldova official 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

33. Interview with EU official 8; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

34. Interview with Moldovan official 3; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

35. Interview with EU Member State official 3; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

36. Interview with EU Member State official 3; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

37. Interview with EU Member State official 3; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

38. Interview with Moldovan official 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

39. Interview with NGO expert 3; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

40. Interview with Moldovan official 2; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

41. Interview with EU official 8; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

42. Interview with EU Member State official 3; June 2015, Brussels (Belgium).

43. For more discussion about the ‘Other’ and the importance of othering, please see Korosteleva (2017).

44. Interview with EU official 8; June 2015, Chișinău (Moldova).

Additional information

Funding

This article has been realised with the financial support of the School of Politics & International Relations, University of Kent [Post-Graduate Research fund]; Universities’ Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) [Research Travel Grant]; European Union’s Horizon 2020 UPTAKE project [grant number 691818].