ABSTRACT
Can the EU be effective in promoting domestic change beyond its borders and if so, under what conditions?
These questions have gained salience since the Union has stepped up its role in the post-Soviet space. With the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) created in 2004, and even more so with the Eastern Partnership (EaP) launched in 2009, the EU offers unprecedented guidance for reform combined with monitoring and benchmarking. The EU seeks to support political and economic reforms by ‘facilitating approximation and convergence towards the European Union’ (Council of the European Union 2009) and diffusing its standards and rules to post-Soviet countries included in the ENP/EaP. 1 Both the ENP and the EaP are premised on the view that the adoption of EU norms and rules will ultimately bring stability and prosperity to the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood, as was the case in post-war Western Europe and in post-Cold War Central and Eastern Europe.
