The contestation of values in the European Neighbourhood Policy: challenges of capacity, consistency and competition

When launching the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the European Union (EU) expected that through a steady process of rapprochement, the neighbouring countries would progressively become part of the EU’s community of values. The European Commission (2004: 5) declared that “[t]he European Neighbourhood Policy’s vision involves a ring of countries, sharing the EU’s fundamental values and objectives, drawn into an increasingly close relationship, going beyond co-operation to involve a significant measure of economic and political integration”. This promise raised high expectations for a comprehensive regulatory and legislative alignment of the neighbours with significant socio-economic and political reforms according to the priorities set out in jointly agreed Action Plans and with benchmarks that can be monitored and assessed. The Action Plans would cover “first, commitments to specific actions which confirm or reinforce adherence to shared values and […] secondly, commitments to actions which will bring partner countries closer to the EU in a number of priority fields” (ibid.: 9).

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