Cover Osteuropa 2-3/2007

In Osteuropa 2-3/2007

Expansion without Enlargement
The EU Neighbourhood Policy in the Dynamic of Europe

Georg Vobruba


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

The European Union developed the European Neighbourhood Policy as an alternative to the enlargement policy. It offers a modified political trade-off. The European Union is no longer holding out to neighbours the prospect of membership, but a special relationship in exchange for their assuming tasks of maintaining stability on the periphery. This policy feeds on the expansionary dynamic of the EU. However, this has reached its limit. In the ENP, the EU also understands itself as an exporter of values. How successful it is depends on the periphery’s readiness to cooperate. The calculus behind cooperation and the neighbours’ alternatives need to be considered more than has so far been the case.

(Osteuropa 2-3/2007, pp. 7–20)