Introduction: Explaining Policy Change in the European Union's Eastern Neighbourhood

Abstract

This Introduction discusses the conventional wisdoms dominating the scholarship on policy change in the EU's Eastern neighbourhood countries and summarises the major findings of this collection. Drawing upon the empirical evidence underpinning the contributions to our collection, we argue that compliance with or convergence to EU policies happens despite high costs, limited capacities and the lack of EU membership prospects. We also challenge country-level or policy-type explanations that emphasise membership aspirations, asymmetric interdependencies between the EU and the neighbourhood countries, or the level of politicisation or institutionalisation characterising particular policy fields. Finally, our findings point towards important differences between membership, accession and neighbourhood Europeanisation by stressing factors mediating the EU's impact on policy change in the Eastern neighbourhood countries that played a rather marginal role in domestic policy change in EU member states and accession countries.

Notes

This Special Section results in part from research conducted at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG) ‘The Transformative Power of Europe’, hosted at the Freie Universität Berlin. The KFG is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft) and brings together research on the diffusion of ideas in the EU's internal and external relations. For further information please consult www.transformeurope.eu

¹ PCA between the European Communities and their Member States and Ukraine, 1998, available at: http://me.kmu.gov.ua/file/link/158062/file/ugoda.pdf, accessed 26 September 2011; PCA between the European Communities and their Member States and Georgia, 1999, available at: http://mfagov.itdc.ge/files/459_9684_628304_44.pdf, accessed 26 September 2011; PCA between the European Union and the Republic of Armenia, available at: http://www.mineconomy.am/files/docs/13_en.pdf, accessed 26 September 2011; PCA between the European Communities and their Member States and Azerbaijan, 1999, available at: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2004/july/tradoc_116754.pdf, accessed 26 September 2011.

² EU third countries are countries that are not EU members or (potential) candidate countries.