ABSTRACT
Since the European Union’s (EU) enlargement to central and eastern Europe, the situation in its eastern neighbourhood has changed significantly. Initially, the EU’s eastern neighbourhood policy was largely about creating ‘a ring of friends’ (European Commission 2003: 4) around the enlarged EU by using instruments such as trade liberalization, transfer of EU norms and technical assistance. Attention was focused on the balance between the incentives provided by the EU to its neighbours to implement reforms and the domestic costs of these reforms without the prospect of EU membership. However, with the creation of the Eurasian Customs Union in 2010 and increasingly active efforts by Russia to further enlarge and deepen this customs union by developing it into the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), this project of regional integration became an important factor in the EU’s relations with its eastern neighbours.
