ABSTRACT
Civil society networks have received little attention when it comes to sectoral analysis of adaptation of EU rules beyond borders. This article offers a remedy by conceptualizing EU influence as an opportunity structure, a resource, and a discursive frame used by civil society organizations. Empirically, it describes how EU rules are used to support environmental reforms by civil society networks in Georgia and Ukraine. Civil society activism and mobilization can lead to high levels of policy approximation despite weak sectoral conditionality, entrenched domestic interests, and low public salience.
Acknowledgments
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Dreiländertagung of the Swiss, Austrian, and German Political Science Associations at the ETH Zürich in 2019 and the UACES 46th Annual Conference at Queen Mary University of London. I thank Vera Axyonova, Lusine Badalyan, Adam Fagan, Nathalie Ferré, and Paul Stubbs for helpful comments on earlier versions.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).