The EU's neighbourhood policies

The European neighbourhood policy (ENP), which was officially established in 2004, aims at harmonising neighbourhood policies of member states, complementing national policies with an EU policy, and initiating a comprehensive strategy of good neighbourhood, notably towards the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. Following traditional EU policy modes and patterns, ENP combines economic incentives with political cooperation aimed at peace-building, democracy-promotion, economic transformation and development in line with the EU's economic-political interests and normative standards. ENP aims to bridge the gap between membership and non-membership, and subscribes to the idea that the EU has a role to play not only in the far abroad but in the near abroad areas as well. ENP as a relatively recent EU policy has shown a number of structural shortcomings and raised dilemmas such as: the duality between the EU's and its member states' neighbourhood policies; the heterogeneity within the near abroad neighbourhood, for instance the differences between the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe; and the limits of the EU's will when building and implementing its role as a global, pan-European and common foreign and security policy actor.SCOPUS: ch.b