“Moral Power” of the EU through the European Neighborhood Policy

Abstract

This chapter traces the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) as a policy crafted vis-a-vis the eastern and southern peripheries of the EU encompassing sixteen neighboring countries, among others, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Pondering the quintessence of the ENP and dissecting it into composite “particles”—“European”, “neighborhood” and “policy”—it delves into the rationale, objectives and instruments deployed by the EU. Moreover, the research tackles such crucial dilemmas as regionalism versus bilateralism, strength of “(joint) ownership”, (dis-)agreement over “shared values”, unequal “partnership”, non-“differentiation”, one-faceted “partial” (positive) “conditionality”. Most importantly, it states that the EU has exhibited “actual” “power” on the moral parameters of consequentialism, inclusiveness and external legitimacy, “partly actual” “power” on coherence, and “potential power” via consistency, balance between values and interests, and normative steadiness.