The idealism that engendered the European ​​Neighbourhood Policy in 2004, later codified in the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, has since been reviewed to adapt to the turbulence that has befallen the EU and its neighbourhood. The ENP is now little more than an elegantly crafted fig leaf that purports to take a soft power approach to the EU’s outer periphery, argues the author, but in effect it inclines more towards Realpolitik. By prioritising security interests over liberal values in increasingly transactional partnerships, the EU is atomising relations with its neighbouring countries. And without the political will and a strategic vision to guide relations with the neighbours of the EU’s neighbours, the ENP remains in suspended animation.

This book examines the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in the context of internal functions performed with regard to the European Union (EU) political system and its key actors. It argues that the ENP has been formulated not only in reaction to external challenges and threats, but also in response to EU internal legitimacy needs at systemic, institutional and actor level. Looking beyond governance approaches and the power of norms, this book follows a sociological approach to the politics of legitimation. Using Bourdieu's field theory, it bridges the rationalist-constructivist divide inherent in much of ENP scholarship. While analyzing articulations of EU institutions in terms of narrative production, reproduction and reconstruction, it sheds valuable light on where the conflicting goals, ambiguity and incoherence stem from. By highlighting Developing Nations' responses and usages of ENP narratives for domestic and international legitimacy-seeking, the book calls for a more outside-in perspective on EU foreign policy. With the European integration project being increasingly contested, both internally and externally, this book provides a timely focus on the topic of legitimation and delegitimation dynamics with regard to EU foreign policy. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European integration and EU foreign policy, and, more broadly, EU Studies and International Relations.

Resilience has emerged as a key concept in EU foreign policy. The policy debate around this concept has been vigorous, but theoretical attempts to develop the concept are few. Covering fields of strategical importance, such as economic governance; growth and sustainable development; energy, environment and climate action; education, the labour market, and foreign affairs, this book is one of the first attempts to profoundly theorise the concept of ‘resilience’ in international relations by looking at several policy areas and countries. Faced with multiple crises (the economic crisis, the Brexit referendum, the refugee crisis, terrorist attacks, geopolitics such as events in the Ukraine), and challenges with its integration process, the European Union needs to become not only more intelligent, more inclusive and more sustainable, but also more resilient and more capable of reacting to different internal and external shocks. This book integrates a systemic assessment of the regions’ specific shocks and risks in relation to internal vulnerabilities (i.e. structural economic, social, institutional and political fragility) and to their long and medium-term impact on the stability, security and sustainable development in the region.

The third edition of this book incorporates more than 10 years of fascinating dynamics since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Apart from analysing the general basis of the Union's external action and its relationship to international law, the book explores the law and practice of the EU in more specialized fields of external action, such as common commercial policy, neighbourhood policy, development cooperation, cooperation with third countries, humanitarian aid, external environmental policy, and common foreign and security policy, as well as EU sanctions. Five years after the second edition published, this fully updated edition contains major developments within the law itself, along with changes and restructuring of the themes within the book. Carefully selected primary documents are accompanied with analytic commentary on the issues they raise and their significance for the overall structure of EU external relations law. The primary materials selected include many important legal documents that are hard to find elsewhere but give a vital insight into the operation of EU external relations law in practice.

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. Building a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the limits of the international rules-based liberal order across a variety of issue areas, this topical book highlights how the discourse and values inherent in these long-established political arrangements are now facing a backlash, and how Europe is responding towards it.

Keukeleire and Delreux demonstrate the scope and diversity of the European Union's foreign policy, showing that EU foreign policy is broader than the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy, and that areas such as trade, development, environment and energy are inextricable elements of it. This book offers a comprehensive and critical account of the EU's key foreign relations – with its neighbourhood, with the US, China and Russia, and with emerged powers – and argues that the EU's foreign policy needs to be understood not only as a response to crises and conflicts, but also as a means of shaping international structures and influencing long-term processes. This third edition reflects recent changes and trends in EU foreign policy as well as the international context in which it operates, addressing issues such as the increasingly contested international order, the conflict in Ukraine, the migration and refugee crisis, Brexit and Covid-19. The book not only clarifies the formal procedures in EU foreign policy-making but also elucidates how it works in practice. The third edition includes new sections and boxes on 'strategic autonomy', European arms exports, the EU's external representation, the 'Brussels Effect', and decentring and gender approaches to EU foreign policy. Up to date, jargon-free and supported by its own website (eufp.eu), this systematic and innovative appraisal of this key policy area is suitable for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as practitioners.

This volume addresses how and in what capacity the European Union and its member states are able to respond to fundamental shifts occurring in global politics and remain relevant for the future. The changing nature of the international system is subject to considerable contestation among scholars, with many claiming that the fundamentals of the post-war international system are being rewritten. This volume brings together prominent scholars in the field of European security to address a range of pertinent issues related to Europe’s role in the context of evolving global challenges. The first section focuses on whether the EU is an actor with a strategic nature and the means to act on a global security strategy. The second section considers the institutional dynamics and the approaches at the EU’s disposal to fulfil its possible intended global roles. The third section addresses Europe’s most important strategic relationship—the partnership it has with the United States. This section considers the recalibration of the transatlantic relationship in light of the changing international system and the reorientation of U.S. foreign policy. This book will be of much interest to students of European Union policy, European Security policy, European Foreign policy and International Relations in general.

At a time when many regions of the world, including Europe, see a resurgence of authoritarianism, three countries of Eastern Europe – Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova – are struggling to counter this trend with the aim of developing European-style democracies in the framework of their Association Agreements with the European Union. This book offers an in-depth analysis of this challenge, with expert contributions on the workings of these countries’ democratic and judicial institutions, their anti-corruption policies and the hazards they must overcome, including the strong presence of oligarchs. Other themes include how these countries are adapting to their precarious geo-political positioning between the EU and Russia and how the quality of their political and economic governance compares with the Balkan states. The book complements three landmark Handbooks (now in their 2nd edition and also published by Rowman & Littlefield International) explaining the progress achieved in implementing the comprehensive Association Agreements that each of these countries has entered into with the EU. The struggle to advance good democratic governance in these close neighbours of the EU represents a test case of the highest strategic significance for both the EU and the three states themselves. For the most part, the jury is still out over its outcome.

This groundbreaking new textbook offers extensive coverage of EU External Action studies, from its major concepts to the key theories in the field. Over the past decades, the European Union has progressively developed into a significant global actor in an increasing number of policy fields. This long-awaited volume looks into different ways of conceptualizing the EU as a global actor, the processes and impact of EU external action, explanations offered by IR and integration theories, the discursive, normative, practice and gender 'turns', and the 'decentring agenda' for EU external action. The book offers a reader-friendly guidance on these various ways in which to study the EU as a global actor: each chapter introduces one concept, approach or theory and illustrates its application by a case study of EU external action. In drawing the different perspectives together, the book underscores that 'EU External Action Studies' is becoming an academic speciality in its own right. Written by leading experts, the volume will make essential reading for students, scholars and practitioners of EU external action. EU External Action Studies nowadays attract attention from scholars and students in International Relations (IR), Foreign Policy Analysis and (interdisciplinary) EU Studies, as well as from practitioners.

Ten years after the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union became part of binding primary law, and twenty years since its adoption, this volume assess the application of the EU Charter in the Member States. How often, and in particular by which actors, is the EU Charter invoked at the national level? In what type of situations is it used? Has the approach of national courts in general, and of constitutional courts in particular, to EU law to EU fundamental rights law changed following the entry into force of the Charter? What sort of interplay does the Charter generate with the national bill of rights and the European Convention? Is the life with the Charter on the national level a harmonious 'praktische Konkordanz' or rather a messy 'ménage à trois'? These and other questions are discussed in the four parts that form the book. Part I is dedicated to the normative foundations. Part II sets out Member States' Perspectives, providing a structured, in-depth account of the Charter's operation in 16 different Member States. Part III provides a detailed evaluation of selected rights contained within the Charter. Part IV synthesises the materials presented up to that point to develop a series of broader perspectives, looking to discover underlying lessons about the relationship between EU fundamental rights law and national legal systems.