The European Union’s ‘Ideal Self’ in the Post-Soviet Space

Abstract

During the last two decades, one of the cornerstones of the foreign policy of the European Union (EU) has been the development of a strong presence in its neighbourhood. The 2003 Security Strategy and the recent 2016 Global Strategy highlighted the need to show that the EU can play a major role in the international arena by first establishing a strong presence in the neighbourhood and proving the union’s effectiveness in the region. In this context, the aim of the essay is to explore the way the EU’s ‘ideal self’ is constructed and perceived in the post-Soviet space.

Notes

¹ The 2003 Security Strategy highlighted the EU’s ambition to play a key role in world politics, and the expectation that it would manage to influence its neighbourhood following the 2004/2007 ‘big bang’ enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe. For more details see: ‘European Security Strategy—A Secure Europe in a Better World’, 12 December 2013, available at: https://europa.eu/globalstrategy/en/european-security-strategy-secure-europe-better-world, accessed 27 March 2018.

² The 2016 Global Strategy stresses the fact that world politics has become less stable than a decade ago and requires a different approach from the EU. The emphasis is on the need to develop an approach based on principled pragmatism, where the EU has more limited ambitions in international relations and seeks to pursue its interests in foreign policy. For more details see: ‘EU Global Strategy’, available at: https://europa.eu/globalstrategy/en/global-strategy-foreign-and-security-policy-european-union, accessed 9 May 2018.

³ The ENP was launched by the EU in 2003 and sought to provide a framework for the union to cooperate with the neighbourhood tastes. The main goal was to promote stability and democracy in the neighbourhood, while also helping the states in the region to develop. The ENP was revised following the Arab Spring in 2011, and then in the context of the Ukraine crisis and the migrant crisis in 2015. For more details see: ‘European Neighbourhood Policy’, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/neighbourhood/overview_en, accessed 27 March 2018.

⁴ The EU launched the EaP in 2009 on the initiative of Poland and Sweden. The initiative is part of the ENP, but seeks to further enhance cooperation on trade and political issues with the post-Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. For more details see: ‘Eastern Partnership’, available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/topics/eastern-partnership_en, accessed 27 March 2018.

⁵ Similar to the ENP, the main aim of the UfM is to create stability and integration in the Mediterranean region. It was established in 2008 as an intergovernmental forum consisting of European countries and states from the Mediterranean basin. For more details see, ‘Union for the Mediterranean’, available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/diplomatic-network/union-mediterranean-ufm_en, accessed 27 March 2018.

⁶ The essay considers the EU to have achieved actorness in world politics. To that extent references to the EU’s foreign policy or to its self-perception in international relations focus on areas where a high level of agreement exist among the member states and the EU’s institutions—the neighbourhood is one of these areas.

⁷ This essay posits that both states and other types of international actors such as the EU are constrained in their foreign policy by the ‘ideal self’. However, for practical reasons the term ‘state’ is used throughout.

⁸ The AAs are treaties that set out the framework for cooperation between the EU and non-EU states; DCFTAs are enhanced trade agreements that the EU has offered to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.

⁹ EU Consultation: ‘Towards a New European Neighbourhood Policy’, Heinrich–Böll–Stiftung e.V., 2015, available at: https://eu.boell.org/sites/default/files/towards_a_new_european_neighbourhood_policy_fin.pdf, accessed 20 June 2017.

¹⁰ ‘Moldova wants to Improve Relations with Russia—Deputy PM’, TASS, 31 May 2016, available at: http://tass.ru/en/world/879285, accessed 20 June 2017.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristian Nitoiu

Cristian Nitoiu, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK. Email: [email protected]