Do Ut Des? The Need for True Reciprocity in the European Neighbourhood Policy

Abstract: The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) seeks to answer difficult questions of EU foreign policy after the Eastern enlargement: how to deal with the next ring of diverse EU neighbours bonded only by their proximity to the EU. The ENP attempts to do so through a methodology successfully tested during enlargement: political conditionality. In the case of enlargement, it is about a system of unilateral commitments of partner countries to EU political values in exchange for delayed EU benefits, in particular, a membership perspective. However, the ENP offers no membership perspective, but only access to EU instruments already available to partner countries. It is argued that this difference undermines ENP effectiveness. In a case study of EU–Ukraine relations in 2004–2007, this paper demonstrates that the mechanical transfer of political conditionality to the ENP without an EU membership perspective makes the methodology futile as it loses legitimacy in the eyes of the partner countries. At the same time, available ENP instruments cannot provide a reliable substitute as they favour vested EU interests and depend on cooperation with partner countries, and therefore do little to achieve ENP political objectives.