ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the EU’s ordering efforts and the processes by which it is constructing geopolitical subjectivity vis-à-vis the post-Soviet north. The fairly short history of the EU’s encounter with the post-Soviet north that was conceptualized in the previous chapter must at the same time be understood as part of the development of Union-wide processes since the 1990s. The Baltic members ZHUHZHOFRPHGDVSDUWRIWKHµELJEDQJ¶HQODUJHPHQWDIWHUGLI¿FXOWEXWXOWLmately successfully conducted negotiations between them and the member states. The negotiations were initiated on the basis of the European Commission’s draft negotiating positions, and the negotiation process was chaired by the presidency RIWKH(XURSHDQ&RXQFLO7KH¿QDODFFHVVLRQGHFLVLRQZDVDSSURYHGE\WKH(XURSHDQ3DUOLDPHQWDQGUDWL¿HGLQDOOPHPEHUVWDWHVRIWKH(87KH(8¶V5XVVLDQ relations were built with the involvement of the European Commission, the rotating EU presidency and in many cases intergovernmental decision-making and bargaining, plus the more or less regular intervention of individual member states and the European Parliament in the capacity of a moral watchdog and budget controller, often much to Russia’s dismay.
