ABSTRACT

A few years after the launch of the European neighbourhood policy (ENP) in 2004, first analyses draw relatively bleak conclusions on its potential for promoting policy diffusion and more comprehensive political change in neighbouring countries. The main reason is that ‘without the membership perspective, the ENP countries may not be motivated to undertake domestic reforms’ (Kelley 2006: 36, see also Schimmelfennig and Scholtz 2008; Smith 2005). Although prompted by the aim to find an alternative to European Union (EU) membership, the general set-up of the ENP has been very much influenced by the politics of eastern enlargement (Kelley 2006). Yet, it is evident that, without the prospect of membership, it lacks ‘the Union’s most successful foreign policy instrument’ (Commission 2003: 5): accession conditionality.