Turning Presence into Power: Europe in its eastern neighbourhood

As Europe examines in 2011 how it should deal with the wave of revolutions to its south, it needs to consider the lessons of its involvement in its eastern neighbourhood, where the EU’s considerable presence is not matched by real influence.

In the EU’s eastern neighbourhood, despite the wave of ‘colour revolutions’ over the last decade, authoritarian rulers are consolidating their grip on power - from Armenia to Azerbaijan, Belarus to Ukraine.

The authors of Turning presence into power: lessons from the eastern neighbourhood, Nicu Popescu and Andrew Wilson argue that the failings of the European Neighbourhood Policy (launched in 2003) offer important lessons that the EU needs to learn from.