ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the European Union's (EU) policy mechanisms under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). It explores the processes through which ENP decisions are adopted and implemented in countries on which the EU cannot hierarchically impose its own rules. The chapter focuses on those mechanisms through which the EU has diffused its norms and influenced domestic change in the neighbourhood, namely conditionality, socialisation and differentiation. It examines how the mechanisms adapted from enlargement policy have evolved since the ENP was launched, the extent to which they have proved effective in transforming the EU's eastern and southern neighbourhoods and how they have been reassessed to respond to a changing political landscape in both 'neighbourhoods'. The focus on sector-specific conditionality is also present in the ENP approach towards the southern neighbourhood. The reinforcement of multilateral cooperation frameworks in the South was instrumental in pushing the EU to replicate similar structures in the eastern neighbourhood.
