On 20-21 March 2014, the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe, Bruges campus, organised a conference to discuss the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in a comparative perspective. The conference was organised with the financial support of the European Commission.

The conference analysed and compared the legal, institutional, political, security, economic and financial challenges that the EU’s various policy frameworks with neighbouring countries are confronted with in order to identify lessons for the ENP. Although the EU’s co-operation with neighbouring countries has taken different forms and shapes, there are many common or similar challenges worth exploring based on a comparative, sectoral and horizontal approach.

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Based on the call for papers, the two-day conference was organised in three panel sessions comprising several presentations each to which discussants reacted before the general debate was opened. The key question to be addressed by the papers in a comparative manner was to what extent common challenges can be identified across different policy frameworks and what lessons can be drawn for the ENP.

The conference language was English. Participation was free of charge but registration was required.

A first, related conference on “The ENP in a Comparative Perspective: Mapping the EU’s Wider Neighbourhood Relations” took place in November 2013 in order to put the ENP into context. It focused on a comparison of the different cooperation schemes that the EU has developed with neighbouring countries.