Russia and the European Union: Prospects for a New Relationship by Oksana Antonenko , Kathryn Pinnick (review)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

igo SEER, 86, I, 2008 Overall, this volume is clearly an important and recommended addition to the literature on European integration and will be a useful resource for anyone seriously interested in EU enlargement. It certainly shows thatwe need more than a single explanatory framework forunderstanding something with the scale, complexity and long time span of the 2004 enlargement process, and that the constructivist approach inparticular should be included. It is also worth saying thatwhilst not being a companion volume as such, this book is a very useful complement to another work also published in 2005 ? The Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe (Ithaca, NY) ? for which Sedelmeier was co-editor and contributor. As well as being a key source for specialists, thebook will be a very useful teaching resource too. Itwill provide valuable reading for both latter stage undergraduates and postgraduate students of European integration, aiding study of dynamics of both enlarge ment itself and the broader European integration process. It should also appeal to students of international politics and be relevant for courses dealing with the Europeanization dimensions of the post-Communist transformation process. History andGovernance ResearchInstitute M. Dangerfield Universityof Wolverhampton Antonenko, Oksana and Pinnick, Kathryn (eds).Russia and the European Union: Prospects for a New Relationship.Routledge and IISS, London and New York, 2005. xiv + 290 pp. Maps. Tables. Figures. Notes. Appendix. Index. ?60.00. Singe the beginning of the twenty-firstcentury, the relationship between Russia and the European Union (EU) has tended to become more difficult. The same has not been true forRussia's bilateral relations with all of theEU's member states; relations with Gerhard Schroder's Germany and Jacques Chirac's France, the other members of the troikaestablished by President Boris EFtsin, have been generally good, especially when NATO was splitby thewar against Iraq of 2003, while the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been consistently the best friend in Europe of President Vladimir Putin. In the negotiations between Russia and the European Commission prior to the EU's enlargement in May 2004, however, Russia's attempts to put pressure on the Commission via its bilateral links proved largely futile.Russia was forced to give in to theCommission on most major issues.The difficulties in the relationship with theEU have been enhanced by the fact that it is only under Putin that theRussian elite understood thatEU enlargement intoEastern Europe posed a potential threat toRussia's interests thatwas greater than that ofNATO. Oksana Antonenko and Kathryn Pinnick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies have compiled this collection of studies of aspects of the relationship. Authors are from Western and Eastern Europe and Russia. Although thepapers primarily predate EU enlargement, theyprovide a valu able guide to forces and institutions stillat work since 2004. The papers are REVIEWS 191 grouped in three sections: Russia's relations with the EU at the macro-level, studies of co-operation at the regional and border level, and the problems of theKaliningrad exclave. While there is no conclusion, the introduction by the editors acts as a summary of the volume and at the same time puts forward policy proposals. Antonenko and Pinnick write, 'While enlargement implies that the EU's and Russia's interests are converging, we are still far from a common agenda for integration' (p. 2). Enlargement might actually mean a divergence of interests, if Russia perceived itas leading to a loss of influence and trade.The introduc tion reflects the view that it is no longer possible to set behavioural norms, based on common European values, and expect Russia to converge with them, as was the case in the 1990s. Putin's increasing control over the media and then over all aspects of political lifeand the continuing abuses in Chechnia have radically changed West European views of Russia. 'This domestic consolidation strategy is working against, rather than for, greater convergence with the EU' (p. 3). The editors argue thatwhat isneeded now is a mutual process of convergence, inwhich the EU and Russia identify a common agenda, involving the creation of 'common spaces', and adopt common procedures to achieve them (p. 5). They point out that theEU and Russia do not yet have a strategy for advancing...