Skip to main content

Change or Continuity: Is the Eastern Partnership an Adequate Tool for the European Neighbourhood?

Korosteleva, Elena (2011) Change or Continuity: Is the Eastern Partnership an Adequate Tool for the European Neighbourhood? International Relations, 25 (2). pp. 243-262. ISSN 0047-1178. (doi:10.1177/0047117811404446) (KAR id:39207)

Abstract

This article examines the discourse of the EU’s relations with eastern Europe under the recently launched Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative. First, it evaluates the EaP’s conceptual framework to suggest that there seems to be more continuity than change in the EU’s modus operandi with its neighbours. More crucially, the notion of ‘partnership’, central to the new philosophy of cooperation with the outsiders, continues to be ill defined, causing a number of problems for the effective and legitimate realisation of the European Neighbourhood Policy/Eastern Partnership in the region. Second, drawing on the empirical investigations of the official discourses in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, the article reveals an increasing gap between EU rhetoric and east European expectations. In the absence of adequate partnership response to the needs and interests of ‘the other’, the policy is unlikely to find anticipated legitimation in the neighbourhood.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1177/0047117811404446
Uncontrolled keywords: Belarus, European Union, governance, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine
Subjects: J Political Science
J Political Science > JZ International relations
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Politics and International Relations
Depositing User: Elena Korosteleva
Date Deposited: 14 Apr 2014 09:39 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:15 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/39207 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.