ABSTRACT
Being surrounded by a ring of stable and well-governed countries is of utmost importance for any country or bloc and the European Union is no exception. For a long time, the EU has searched for effective tools to help promote stability and good governance in its immediate neighbourhood. Whereas the Union based its influence in the neighbourhood mainly on the perspective of EU membership and the established enlargement policy until the early 2000s, there was a need to set up a new system of relations with the countries in Eastern Europe and the Southern Mediterranean that were not eligible for membership at all or could not be realistically expected to accede to the Union in the foreseeable future. The aim of the EU was to ‘develop a zone of prosperity and a friendly neighbourhood – a “ring of friends” – with whom the EU enjoys close, peaceful and co-operative relations’ (European Commission, 2003: 4).
