Prof. Kataryna WOLCZUK, Chairholder of the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair at the College of Europe in Natolin, and Dr Tamar GAMKRELIDZE, Postdoctoral Fellow in the European Neighbourhood Policy Chair, have published a co-authored working paper as part of the Horizon 2020 ENGAGE project endeavour. The ENGAGE project unites 13 academic institutions and think-tanks from across Europe, and focuses on analysis of the strategic challenges faced by the EU and its tools for becoming a more assertive global actor.
The paper is titled "Mapping Changing Intra-EU and External Opportunity Structures and Their Impact on Past EU Neighbourhood Policies" and it focuses on the EU's engagement with the East and South Neighbourhood. It provides a comprehensive, detailed, and systematic mapping of the changing intra-EU and wider neighbourhood-related opportunity structures resulting from the launch of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).
The paper explores the shifting internal and external opportunity structures by tracking the evolution of the ENP over time. It begins by examining the intra-EU opportunity structures through tracking the ENP's original design, as well as the underlying legal and institutional architecture, followed by an analysis of its 'toolbox'. The paper then delves into key intra-EU constraints.
After mapping the intra-EU constraints, the paper explores the external opportunity structures by looking at the regional dimensions, which were specifically developed for the Eastern and Southern neighbourhoods. The paper argues that the complex and shifting regional dynamics reveals the inherent limits of the undifferentiated, uniform institutional design of the neighbourhood policy.
You can read the paper here.