European Neighbourhood Policy: addressing myths, narrowing focus, improving implementation

The upcoming Communication of the European Commission on the review of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is likely to re-confirm conditionality and differentiation as the two guiding principles for the EU’s assistance to its Eastern neighbours. This implies that those countries that take more steps towards greater political and economic association with the EU will receive more support from it than those that do not reform. While in principle this is the right step, in reality, this approach only succeeds insofar as the countries themselves want to embark on a
path of reform, transformation and closer association with the EU. In this article, the authors argue that most of the EU’s eastern neighbours currently lack the will to do so. This is partly due to the lack of membership promise by the EU, but also in part due to the region’s own political, economic and social development.