Can the EU Pressure Dictators? Reforming ENP Conditionality after the ‘Arab Spring’

This paper analyzes the position of political conditionality in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and its possible reform following the deep changes brought about by the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011. It is argued that conditionality has suffered from a limited operationalization of the values it was supposed to be based on, due to a lack of common political will of EU member states. Moreover, the European Union (EU) eroded its position in negotiations with North African regimes by designing a self-centered cooperation, neither offering much nor genuinely engaging Arab societies out of fear of Islamism.

Beyond current weaknesses and political blockades, the ENP’s structural logic also played against effective conditionality. Its methodology based on socialization made value-transmission impossible in an authoritarian environment and entrapped the EU in its relations with North African regimes. Strong conditionality is thus incompatible with the ENP when the latter engages autocratic regimes. The EU cannot pressure dictators and only a ‘soft’ conditionality used as a guide for the EU more than a sanction tool seems realistic in such a context.

College of Europe: Study: EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies: Research Activities: EU Diplomacy Papers [PDF] https://www.coleurope.eu/sites/default/files/research-paper/edp_5_2014_borreschmidt.pdf

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