Contested neighbourhood: Toward the ‘Europeanization’ of Moldova?

The lack of a credible membership promise and a re-invigorated Russia have transformed the environment in which the European Union (EU) seeks to bolster its external policy in Central Eastern Europe. Examining Moldova, a country with concurrent commitments to creating strong bonds with the EU and Russia, the article analyses the challenges and opportunities to ‘Europeanize’ the EU's Eastern neighbourhood. It shows that the effects of Europeanization do not solely depend on the incentives offered by Brussels, but significantly on the willingness of the elite and population to adopt these concepts and on external factors, such as the politics of Russia.