The Eastern EU neighbourhood: How to enhance the EU’s partners’ownership of the ENP

The concept of the ENP’s 'joint ownership' is a basic approach of this policy. It is found in all strategic EU documents but is insufficiently researched so far. This paper aims at analysing the concept against the EU’s potential to act as a transformative power in its Eastern neighbourhood and focuses on the notion’s diverging interpretations by the EU (as a deliberative tool) and by its ENP partners (as part of hard give-and-take bargains). It asks if and to what degree the EU has proven the dominant partner in the ENP relationship with its Eastern neighbours (irrespective of joint ownership), and examines on which issues and how far the partner countries have managed to place their own interests on the common ENP agenda (on the basis of this principle). The text offers an insight into 'actor ownership' of policy by emphasizing mostly the role of civil society in the ENP partners in the process of policy design and implementation, but also shedding light on the potential of other non-state actors. It makes several recommendations towards enhancing joint ownership in the future implementation and development of the ENP in the Eastern EU neighbourhood.