ABSTRACT
This chapter explores external perceptions of the EU as a political actor on the international scene and evaluates the regional cooperation policies the EU has developed with regard to its eastern neighbours in terms of their local reception by civil society actors. The EU's Neighbourhood policies are praised in the sense that they have established a new platform for political, technical and social cooperation that has assisted in institutional capacity-building and social agenda-setting. With its geopolitical vision of Neighbourhood, the EU has attempted to export well beyond its borders not only its principles of democracy and good governance but also its security concerns. The human geography perspective is generally critical in this respect, as geographers have made it their business to uncover how geographic knowledge is created and manipulated for political purposes. The political priorities of Ukraine's political elites are focused on nation-building, the consolidation of a political identity and the formal institutionalisation of state institutions.
