Convergence without membership? The impact of the European Union in the neighbourhood: evidence from Ukraine

Abstract

How does the European Union (EU) affect change in neighbouring countries? The article explores this question, using Ukraine as a case study. So far Ukraine has attracted contradictory assessments of the impact of the EU on the  country's domestic  transformation. To explain this puzzle, the process of Ukraine's  convergence with EU rules is analysed in terms of rule selection, adoption and  application. The article focuses on the mechanisms which the EU uses to shape domestic actors’ incentives and capacities for taking on EU rules in each of the three dimensions. In the case of technical regulation, EU mechanisms affect domestic actors differently in the three dimensions, resulting in comprehensive rule selection but only selective rule adoption and application. The process of convergence occurs, but in a non-synchronized and highly idiosyncratic way, thereby indicating the patchy impact of the EU on its neighbours, even in the core economic field.

Keywords:

• Convergence
• EU
• Europeanization
• European Neighbourhood Policy
• technical regulation
• Ukraine

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Rilka Dragneva, Tina Freyburg, Tim Haughton and Derek Averre as well as two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. The usual disclaimer applies. Preparation of this article was facilitated by the ESRC research grant (RES-360-25-0096), the European University Institute in Florence and KFG ‘The Transformative Power of Europe’, hosted at the Freie Universität Berlin and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Notes

In addition to document analysis, the research findings presented in this paper are based on interviews with Ukrainian officials and experts from various (non-)governmental bodies conducted during several research visits to Kyiv, Paris and Brussels between 2004 and 2010.

Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities, and their member states and Ukraine, 1998, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2003/october/tradoc_111612.pdf

Authors’ interviews with a senior official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Brussels, September 2006 and September 2010.

It is often assumed that the ENP Action Plans reflect the preferences of neighbouring countries. They do not. Having had pre-drafted all of them, the Commission merely presented them for approval to neighbouring countries. The Commission sought to minimize changes to the drafts not only by the neighbouring countries but also EU member states in order to ensure normative consistency across the whole neighbourhood. Therefore, neighbouring countries’ preferences and priorities with regard to rule selection need to be gauged from other country-specific sources, rather than their ENP Action Plans.

Authors’ interview with a Ukrainian official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris, August 2004.

Authors’ interview with a Ukrainian expert in November 2006 and an official from the Ministry of Justice in February 2006.

Authors’ interview with a Ukrainian expert, Kyiv, March 2008.

Accreditation is a means to assess the competence and integrity of conformity assessment bodies which certify the compliance of products with technical standards.

Authors’ interview with a Ukrainian expert, Kyiv, October 2009.

Authors’ interview with EU official, Brussels, October 2007 and a Ukrainian expert, Kyiv, February 2008.

Own calculations based on data obtained from the State Statistical Office of Ukraine and Eurostat.

Authors’ interview with an official from UkrTest, Kyiv, March 2008.

Decree of the President of Ukraine ‘On the Measures Improving Activity in the Technical Regulation and Consumption Policy Sphere’, dated 13.07.2005. No. 1105/2005.

Authors’ interview with a Ukrainian expert, Kyiv, March 2008.

Interview with Maria Carton, Resident Twinning Advisor for the DSSU, February 2009, http://twinning.com.ua/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=881&Itemid=185&lang=english

The numbers can be found on the NAAU's homepage: http://www.naau.org.ua/ua/ (accessed 10 December 2009).

Own calculations based on data obtained from the State Statistical Office of Ukraine and Eurostat.