The European Neighbourhood Policy: a framework for modernisation?

This Working Paper offers a selection of the papers which were presented during the Workshop on “The European Neighbourhood Policy – A Framework for Modernisation?”, which was held on 1-2 December 2006 at the European University Institute of Florence under the auspices of the Academy of European Law. In particular, this Working Paper intends to explore from a trans-disciplinary perspective the objectives and instruments which have been devised in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and to consider in this light the capacity of the policy to promote a fundamental process of modernisation in the target countries. This is done in the conviction that a reconsideration of the coherence between instruments and objectives of the ENP is particularly urgent and it is likely to affect not only the effectiveness of the policy itself, but also the ability of the EU to create a circle of friends around its borders and, ultimately, its position in the international arena. To achieve this task, we have brought together the viewpoints of lawyers, political scientists and economists as they look at the wide range of questions prompted by the ENP. The first part of this volume is devoted to the analysis of the Objectives of the ENP. In this framework, a first paper will scrutinise the expectations from the new policy, then 5 more papers will examine the 3 major articulated objectives of the policy: stability, prosperity and security. The second part of the volume is focused on the Instruments of ENP. In particular, 3 papers will focus on legislative approximation and on the analysis of the tools which have been used in order to promote an unprecedented process of Europeanisation which goes far beyond the European continent. The last 2 papers have been devoted to the consideration of bilateralism-multilateralism and to the scrutiny of solutions which can be envisaged legally to develop the partnership with neighbouring countries in the framework of the ENP.