ABSTRACT
The European neighbourhood has become a priority for the European Union (EU), mainly in terms of security but also as the testing ground for finding its place as a global actor. The EU has engaged with its neighbours by increasingly using different levels of integration to export its own norms, rules and values beyond its borders, for the sake of prosperity and security in the region. This is now an explicit obligation under the motto of ‘prosperity and good neighbourliness’ of Article 8 Treaty on the European Union (TEU). The third countries involved so far have accepted them, at times reluctantly, on a voluntary basis, being unable to resist the EU’s gravitational force. Whereas some have become an integral part of the Union through accession, other countries remain within its orbit, owing either to a lack of membership ambitions or to the EU’s limited absorption capacity.
