Civil Society Organizations in European Union External Relations: A Study of Interorganizational Networks in the Eastern Partnership and the Mediterranean

Abstract

Networks of civil society organizations are a feature of the Eastern Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean, the two strategies of the European Union (EU) for relations with the countries of the Neighborhood. We examine these structures as instances of interorganizational networks. We employ social network analysis and multiple regression to test empirically a number of hypotheses about these networks. Our results show that the networks are highly centralized around EU institutions, but we also find that gradually relations among all participants become more horizontal and cooperative, that EU institutions become less dominant over time, and that organizations from neighboring countries gain centrality. We also find that interorganizational cooperation is stronger in the southern than in the eastern Neighborhood.