MORE EXPECTATIONS TOWARDS THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY: THE CASE OF UKRAINE

• Main Author: Mihaela-Adriana PĂDUREANU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National University of Political Studies and Public Administration 2015-12-01
• Series: Europolity: Continuity and Change in European Governance
• Online Access: http://europolity.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Vol.-9.-No.-2.-2015_225-239.pdf

Through the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the European Union aimed at offering a stable framework for the development of its neighbouring countries. The Eastern dimension of this policy, the Eastern Partnership, proved to be the catalyst for an unprecedented internal wave of protests. Ukraine, probably the most demanding country in the ENP, has posed a great challenge to this framework. In this article I offer an analysis of those events from the perspective of the EU to show that the factors for these surprising events are rooted in Ukraine’s internal structure. As the conflict in Ukraine is still ongoing at the moment of writing, I complete my analysis with the Minsk 2 agreements. My argument is that the aim to get close to the EU has been motivated by Ukraine’s desire to obtain a political system based on good governance, which was at the same time another goal. I explain the desire to sign the Association Agreement and the deepening of relations with the EU as attempts to ensure that the country would not transform its internal political regime in order to look more like the Russian Federation.