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This chapter considers the strategies adopted by the European Union (EU) in relation to its Eastern neighbours and identifies common problems and obstacles to the EU's approach and how these limit EU-isation. The EU language of conditionality and the external governance approach can conflict with the selfidentity of the neighbours. The success of EU strategies very much depends on how far they coincide with the interests of domestic elites. Deeper Europeanisation needs to go beyond elites talking to each other, and involve wider civil society, creating a much denser range of relationships. The EU's greatest impact in security crises has been through ad hoc shuttle diplomacy by high-profile EU leaders operating in a mediation capacity. The EU confronts the often immutable interests of the neighbours both in terms of their geopolitical position and their own domestic power structures and priorities.
The European Union (EU) is faced by the Eurozone crisis, the rise of anti-EU populism and 'Brexit'. In its immediate neighbourhood it is confronted by a range of challenges and threats. This book explores the origins of the term 'Europeanisation' and the way in which its contemporary iteration-EU-isation-has become associated with the normative power of the EU. The concept of European identity is discussed, with an indication that there are different levels of identity of which a European consciousness can be just one. An overview of different mechanisms the EU uses to promote EU-isation in the neighbourhood and a discussion on the limits of conditionality when membership is not on offer is also included. The book discusses these themes in more detail. It powerfully states the salience of Russia in establishing an alternative geopolitical pole to the EU. The presence of Russia as the Eurasian Economic Union appears to play the role of being a way of preserving traditional conservative values in contrast to the uncomfortable challenges of EU-isation. The Balkans' and Turkey's reception of EU-isation is not affected by the experience of being in-betweeners. The book examines the issue of EU-isation and the relationship between values (norms), interests and identity based on various sectors/themes which cut across different neighbours and are core elements in their relations with the EU.
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the origins of the term 'Europeanisation' and the way in which its contemporary iteration has become associated with the normative power of the European Union (EU). It reveals the way 'Europeanisation' can actually mean 'modernisation'. The book powerfully states the salience of Russia in establishing an alternative geopolitical pole to the EU. It raises the problems of the perception of European identity promoted through EU-isation. The book considers the ways in which the status of languages such as Russian changed in the Eastern neighbourhood after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It also raises the question of how far EU-isation can fundamentally change values and promote an EU-defined European identity when it confronts other local identities such as Balkan identity.
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines the factors that shape relations between the European Union (EU) and those states and regions that compose its Eastern neighbourhood. It discusses the extent to which neigbourhood states have responded to the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and Eastern Partnership (EaP) in terms of such interest-driven perceptions. The book suggests that neighbourhood elites also dominate the implementation and application of EU civil society policies, shaping the salience of citizen-to-citizen contact, capacity building and, thus, neighbourhood or societal awareness and interaction with EU norms and values. It indicates the interest-based approach that current Russian governance has taken when dealing with the technical conditionalities that are necessary to facilitate trading relations with the EU and the clear rejection of those conditions which are norms-based.