EU Neighbourhood Policy


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31 January 2012

The EU has not been perceived as reacting very rapidly or effectively to the so-called Arab Spring. Events do appear to validate the idea underpinning the European Security Strategy (ESS) and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP): only where governments guarantee to their citizens security, prosperity, freedom and equality, can peace and stability last – otherwise, people will revolt. But in practice, in its southern neighbourhood the EU has acted in precisely the opposite manner, so the Arab Spring is occurring in spite of rather than thanks to EU policy.

13 January 2012

Ukraine has long been castigated for its noncommittal attitude to cooperation with the EU, this being part of its ‘multi-vector’ foreign policy. Such a policy was widely attributed to the failings of domestic elites, which delay reform for fear of losing rents and power. This CEPS Working Document suggests, however, that the recent setback in EU-Ukraine relations highlights more complex reasons behind this. First, it asserts that a pro-European vector is not a self-evident choice for Ukraine, which is economically interdependent with both Russia and the EU.

13 January 2012

In their assessment of the state of the Eastern Partnership, as the Polish Presidency of the EU Council drew to a close at the end of 2011, two Russian policy specialists describe the initiative as an experimental EU project that, as demonstrated by other similar initiatives launched by the EU (Northern Dimension and the Barcelona Process), will most likely undergo serious institutional transmutation. For a variety of reasons, however, they found that none of the major actors was either willing or capable of making radical moves at this time.

22 December 2011

In this Commentary, Michael Emerson continues the exercise he initiated in June of monitoring developments of the Arab Revolutions at six-month intervals. The scoreboard so far shows three outright regime changes (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya), with two more in the pipeline: Yemen experiencing a slow regime change of uncertain destination, and with Syria into its eight month of bloody repression.

31 October 2011
31 October 2011

The European Union is a security actor in Central Asia, although with less influence than other players. Russia and China have a much larger impact on Central Asian regimes’ security strategies. These limitations do not dispense with the need for the EU to provide a better security narrative, especially in light of its growing emphasis on human security, and to incorporate this into the current review of its strategy for the region. This policy brief will centre on the EU’s contribution to human security in Central Asia.

28 October 2011

In his latest Commentary, Michael Emerson surveys the dramatic events in this autumn’s political landscape in the European neighbourhood and finds the most astonishing feature is the contradictory trend between the East’s slide backwards towards authoritarianism, while the Arab world proceeds with its anti-authoritarian revolution.

Michael Emerson is Senior Associate Research Fellow at CEPS.

28 October 2011

Algeria is so far the only country in North Africa not to have experienced sustained mass protests calling for political change. The government in Algiers has by no means remained indifferent to the groundbreaking events in neighbouring countries, but it is responding to this sweeping wave of change at its own pace. This paper argues that, despite its apparent stability, the Algerian polity suffers from underlying currents of instability that risk undermining the long-term sustainability of the state.

21 October 2011

In the wake of the unprecedented uprisings that brought to an end decades of repressive authoritarian rule, the Southern Mediterranean region has reached a turning point in its history, presenting many opportunities and challenges for the EU.



CEPS is a member of a consortium led by SOFRECO, and with CIDOB and ICMPD. Areas covered by this lot include European Neighbourhood Policy in the southern Mediterranean; EU bilateral and multilateral relations with the Mediterranean and Middle East; Barcelona Process.

 



This Marie Curie Initial Training Network EXACT is an EU wide Ph.D. and professional training programme for 12 young researchers, academics and professionals in the field of EU External Action funded by the European Commission. It provides the opportunity to realise an individual research project leading to a double Ph.D. ("co-tutelle") issued by two universities. It started in October 2010 for a period of three years including local and network-wide activities provided by the partner institutions of the network.

02 September 2011

The EU seems to move towards a regional focus in supporting civil society in Central Asia. This while the most urgent challenges of NGOs in the region are found in their national environment. Recent history and current developments explain why support for civil society initiatives on a national basis are needed more than ever in Central Asia.

 

15 August 2011

The EU argues in its Central Asia policy that it wants to take greater account of Afghanistan. But what does this mean in practice? There is a case for engaging the Central Asian states beyond agreements over supply and material transport routes to Afghanistan. Central Asian states themselves have the most to gain from a stabilised Afghanistan. Cultural ties and the increasing economic linkages between Central Asia and Afghanistan need to be taken into consideration so that Central Asian states can be assisted in playing a positive role in Afghanistan together with Western actors.

25 July 2011

Following the ‘revolution’ in April 2010, the subsequent interethnic violence in June and the recent international inquiry into these events, Kyrgyzstan is not in safe waters yet. The coming period leading up to the Presidential elections will be important for the country’s stability. What is the current situation in the South of the country, which saw clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, and what are the expectations for the presidential elections? Is Kyrgyzstan on the road to democracy, and what role can external actors play?

30 June 2011

All five Central Asian states are weak in terms of rule of law, good governance and democracy. The EU chose to devote specific attention to the rule of law through a regional initiative with Central Asian partners' participation. What is the current state of the initiative and is the EU on track?

25 July 2011

On 14 July European development ministers met in Sopot, Poland. Among a host of development related matters Central Asia was on the agenda and European Union Special Representative Pierre Morel and Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs were invited to give political and development assistance oriented background to the European ministers. The Polish Presidency wants to devote special attention to EU development assistance to this often over-looked region, which the EU has traditionally viewed predominantly through a foreign policy lens.

01 July 2011

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) held its 10th anniversary summit in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, on 15 June to celebrate its achievements over the last decade and guide its future development. Contrary to the negative predictions that it would prove to be a paper tiger, over the past ten years the SCO has developed into a full-fledged organisation with a structure capable of managing its wide-ranging cooperation on security, economy, transportation, disaster relief, law enforcement, culture, etc.

30 June 2011

The Kyrgyz town of Kara-Suu lies on the border with Uzbekistan, some 25 kilometres from Osh, the city most affected by the conflict between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks on 10-17 June 2010. With a population of around 21,000, of which 67% are ethnic Uzbek, Kara-Suu also serves as the administrative centre of the Kara-Suu district, which includes the village of Nariman, with a predominantly Uzbek population and notorious as the scene of several high-profile and brutal murders, as well as suburbs of Osh.

01 June 2011

In recent years, terrorist actions have increased in Central Asia, especially in the two weakest states, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and on the Uzbek side of the Ferghana Valley. The killing of Osama bin Laden by US special forces has raised fears of a possible backlash from his supporters and a new wave of terror across a large area surrounding Afghanistan.

08 August 2011

In this first MEDPRO project Policy Paper, author Nathalie Tocci considers the concept of sustainability and how it is central to any understanding of Mediterranean politics. Too often confused with stability in policy debates in the Mediterranean region and the West, Tocci argues that not only are these two concepts distinct, with sustainability being broader and deeper than stability, but stability, as interpreted with regard to the regimes in the region, has often run counter to the very conditions that underpin state sustainability.

27 July 2011

In this CEPS Commentary, Michael Emerson surveys recent developments in the case against Julia Temoshenko in Ukraine and its implications for the country’s relations with the EU.

01 July 2011

In this Commentary, CEPS Senior Research Fellow Michael Emerson finds that the huge political transition taking place in the Arab world approaches in importance that which erupted in Central and Eastern Europe two decades ago and comparable certainly in the power of cross-border revolutionary contagion. He offers a schema of regime types and conceivable regime dynamics that can be drawn up on the basis of what has already transpired in each of the countries affected, and what other regions of the world have experienced in their regimes’ transitions.



Launch of a CEPS paperback.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this meeting has had to be postponed to September. The new date will be communicated shortly.

23 June 2011

Any analysis of the prospects for stability and sustainability in the states of Syria and Lebanon reveals the strong ties between these two countries and the impact of external influences on their overall development. Their trajectories, while starkly divergent in terms of the challenges confronting them at present, ultimately converge on a path of long-term unsustainability.

21 June 2011

This CEPS Policy Brief analyses the state of EU-Russian relations as seen from the vantage point of the summit held on June 9-10 in Nizhny Novgorod. The authors describe the political context in which the summit was embedded, the anticipations it evoked from the both sides, its outcomes and some perspectives for the near future.
Andrei Makarychev is professor at the Free University of Berlin and Alexander Sergunin is professor at St. Petersburg State University.
 

08 June 2011

In this Commentary, CEPS Senior Research Fellow Michael Emerson critiques the Review of the European Neighbourhood Policy recently published by the European Commission and the High Representative and arrives at the following main conclusions:
- The Arab spring has pushed the EU institutions into advocating a ‘more for more’ concept, confirming the view that the European Neighbourhood Policy has not been offering sufficient net benefits for its attempted conditionality to work.



A seminar organised by the Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE) the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and the Karelian Institute.