ABSTRACT

This edited volume provides a timely analysis of the European Union’s ‘privileged’ partnerships with neighbouring countries, identifying key points of comparison.

It analyses which policy areas are covered and why, the reasons why a specific institutional arrangement has been chosen, the major advantages and shortcomings for both sides and how effectively the privileged partnerships have worked in practice. Drawing on a number of case studies, the book highlights critical junctures and path dependence in the EU’s external relations and examines what general lessons can be drawn regarding privileged partnerships, in particular with a view to the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU.

This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in EU affairs, European politics, diplomacy studies, and more broadly to international relations and law.

chapter 1|22 pages

Introduction

Privileged partnerships between the European Union and third states

chapter 2|23 pages

Privileged partnerships

The partner countries’ (institutional) perspectives

chapter 3|22 pages

The European Economic Area

A flexible but highly complex two-pillar system

chapter 4|16 pages

Switzerland and the EU

Current issues and new challenges under the Draft Institutional Framework Agreement

chapter 5|18 pages

Unique, yet archetypal

Relations between the European Union and Andorra, Monaco and San Marino

chapter 7|18 pages

The EU–Turkey customs union

Shortcomings and prospects for modernization

chapter 8|18 pages

The EU’s sectoral communities with neighbours

The case of the Energy Community

chapter 9|18 pages

UK withdrawal from EU membership

The quest for cake

chapter 10|28 pages

Conclusion

The EU and its privileged partnerships – Governance Power Europe?