Still a Normative Power Europe?: The European Union’s promotion of European norms in Ukraine

Ukraine experienced two great events of change in 2013-2014: the Euromaidan revolution and the Russian annexation of Crimea. Throughout this time, the European Union sought a deeper association with Ukraine built on the fundamental European principles of democracy, rule of law, social justice and human rights. The purpose of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it will examine the continuity and change in the EU’s policies towards Ukraine before and after the Ukrainian great events of change. Secondly, the thesis will test the explanatory power of Ian Manners’ theory ‘Normative Power Europe’ when applied to EU-Ukraine relations. The study argues that the EU exerted normative power over Ukraine, which played an important role in sparking the Euromaidan revolution and the subsequent deeper EU-Ukraine association. However, the normative power cannot be derived from the EU’s distinct characteristics on the international arena, as is suggested by Manners, but rather from its commitment to abide to its own normative principles when exerting non-ideational forms of power. The most important factor shaping the international role of the EU is therefore not what it is, but what it does