The eastern dimension of the European neighbourhood policy: practices, instruments and social structures

Abstract

The European Union (EU) continuingly searches for more effective policy towards its eastern neighbours, which is reflected in the ongoing adaptation of its existing approaches, discourses and policy strategies to the new challenges of its external environment. In order to understand the complexity and limitations of the EU framework under the European neighbourhood policy and the eastern partnership initiative – that is, to consider the interface between policy instruments, institutional structures and multiple agents – one needs to adopt an original analytical perspective of practices to comprehensively assess the policies' outcomes. With this in mind, this issue sets to discern patterns of social practices between the EU and its eastern neighbours, and examine how these relations guide agents' interactions in various policy areas. This introduction outlines the theoretical framework synergising the three fundamental concepts – of practices, policy instruments and social structures – that have predicated research for this issue. It also outlines the structure and main arguments of the individual case-studies which inform the issue's conceptual framework.

Keywords:

• European neighbourhood policy
• eastern partnership
• practices
• policy instruments
• social structures
• EU governance

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the University Association for Contemporary European Studies Collaborative Research Network “EU-Russia” under whose auspices this issue has been conceptually conceived, as well as the journal editors and anonymous referees for their helpful guidance and feedback. We are also indebted to the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-061-25-0001) for the financial support of research which contributed to this issue.

Notes

The latter include Integrated Border Management; small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) Facility; Regional Electricity Markets, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources; Prevention, Preparedness and Response to natural and man-made Disasters (PPRD); and finally Environmental Governance. For more information, see http://eeas.europa.eu/eastern/docs/2011_eap_flagships_initiatives_en.pdf, accessed March 2012.

This definition builds upon the conceptualisation of practices in social theory that linked several elements, interconnected to one another: forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, “things” and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding and know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge (see Reckwitz 2002).

Specifically, background knowledge is tacit, inarticulate, implicit, contextual, automatic since learnt experimentally “in and through practice, and remains bound up in it” (Reckwitz 2002, 270).

The practices turn in IR is inspired in particular by Pierre Bourdieu's sociology (Bourdieu 1977, 1990; also see Pouliot 2008; Leander 2010, 2011; Bigo 2011).

See more discussion in the following section on structures.

In addition, both authors differentiate analytically between instruments and capabilities, where capabilities are “resources that are made operational but which are not yet translated into the specific instruments which may be applied in practical politics” (Brighi and Hill 2008, 130–131).

EU sanctions may include diplomatic measures limiting the intensity and status of political relations as well as a limitation on economic relations through the imposition of embargoes.

The ENP and EaP do not have direct treaty provisions, and on this basis is seen as a soft law policy.

For more information, see http://www.enpi-info.eu/main.php?id_type=2&id=359. In addition, there are also thematic financial instruments, including the Instrument for Stability, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, etc.

For more information, see http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/regional-cooperation/irc/investment_en.htm.

A full list of regional projects can be found on http://www.enpi-info.eu/list_projects_east.php?lang_id=450.

For more information, see http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/regional-cooperation/enpi-east/annual-programmes_en.htm.

However, the EU maintains targeted sanctions directed towards some individuals in countries (Belarus) or territories (Transnistria) and has used anti-dumping measures concerning some products.

The EU has applied some limited political (visa restriction, asset freeze and recall of EU ambassadors) and economic sanctions (Generalised Scheme of Preferences withdrawal) to stimulate Belarus' regime for more constructive engagement. For more information, see http://eeas.europa.eu/belarus/index_en.htm.

Social structures are “the most basic, enduring, and determinative patterns in social life” (Calhoun 2002). Social structure refers to durable features of sustained, large-scale, social coexistence that shape the individual conduct and typically address the five facets of human society: “(1) collective features, process, or patterns that are (2) consistent across large populations and (3) persist for long periods and that are (4) manifest as impersonal and implacable influences that strongly condition (5) the lives that individuals can lead”.

For more information, see http://www.easternpartnership.org/community/events/eastern-partnership-business-forum-sopot.

For more information, see http://eeas.europa.eu/blacksea/index_en.htm.