Bridges over Convulsing Waters: the EU aspiring Eastern Partners’ Role in the Regional Governance

The enlargement of the European Union (EU) to the East in 2004 and 2007 so as to include ten former communist countries and two small Mediterranean islands has triggered new questions on the nature of EU governance. We argue that the accession of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) to the EU has affected governance patterns in the EU and beyond. Undeniably, the most recent waves of enlargement have had feed-back effects on Europeanisation mechanisms (Grabbe 2006). Also, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) conditionality attached to the Eastern partners will likely follow similar patterns. The EU is proud of its Enlargement policy, “one of the most successful EU policies”i, and is inclined to extend the enlargement mechanisms to future frameworks as the ENP. Through the example of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, and possibly Belarus, we argue that the ENP conditionality contributes to the EU's governance export in the same way the preparations for the fifth Eastern enlargement did. Furthermore, we advance the idea that complying with ENP conditionality may bring EU aspiring Eastern partners closer to accession