European Neighbourhood Policy: its assessment and challenges

Abstract

As a consequence of its last enlargement, the EU has new neighbouring countries to the east and has also had to develop closer cooperation with its southern Mediterranean neighbours. Following the intervention of British Foreign Minister, Jack Straw and the Solana-Patten Letter in 2002, president of the Commission, Romano Prodi took the “Wider Europe” initiative which aimed to create “a ring of friends” from the neighbouring countries of the EU. This was followed by a name change in 2003 to “European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)”. Three Southern Caucasus countries were included in accordance with a proposal of the Solana Paper of 2003; Russia, however, was excluded. The EU started its ENP in 2005 with the following partners: Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and the Ukraine.The objective of the ENP is to avoid new division between the enlarged EU and its neighbours and to offer them the chance to share the prosperity and stability of the EU without becoming members. The ENP is activated by Action Plans negotiated with each of the neighbouring partners who already have contractual relations with the EU. A new funding mechanism, ENPI (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument) was created in 2007, which also covers the Russian Federation.The ENP is a new type of policy for the EU, and its characteristics are: a mixture of bilateral relations to the East and, bi- and multi-lateral relations to the South; comprehensive cover of the three pillars of the EU; no clear common goal and no prospect of EU membership; the necessity of contractual relations with the EU to negotiate the ENP Action Plan; and partial inclusion of Russia (by ENPI) after initial exclusion.After three years of ENP, the results are still modest; strengthening it requires the EU tackling a multitude of problems. On the other hand, three new multilateral frameworks may complement the bilateral ENP: the Baltic Sea Cooperation (2007), the Black Sea Synergy (2007) and the Union for the Mediterranean (2008).To create a successful ENP, the EU has to offer additional concrete incentives to its neighbouring partners, consider their geographical varieties, coordinate its policy among the three pillars of the Union and member states, and cooperate more closely with Russia. A successful ENP would demonstrate the “soft power” of the EU and develop it into a true global player for the 21st century.