ABSTRACT
Introduction The previous four cases have traced the differences in underlying worldviews as well as the gradual dilution of post-sovereign components in the actual institutionalized practices between the European Union and Russia. The last case to be studied – the Northern Dimension of the European Union’s policies (hereafter Northern Dimension, ND) – can be seen as a microcosm that reflects all the phases previously discussed. It started out as an EU policy that sought to preserve the Union’s own internal autonomy while delegating priorities and tasks to other outside partners and actors in the region in a post-sovereign manner. But the lack of enthusiasm for such an agenda at the regional level, especially in Russia, resulted in difficulties in the policy’s implementation, as will be discussed in detail in this chapter. After a period of paralysis lasting several years, the latest phase has witnessed an attempt at reinvigorating the policy in a manner that has entailed a clear dilution of the original post-sovereign principles in the case of the ND. Moreover, the recent developments concerning the policy, particularly those occurring during the Finnish EU presidency in autumn 2006, seem to indicate a more radical break with the post-sovereign tenets the EU has been trying to advocate for Russia than was witnessed, for example, in the case of the Four Common Spaces, discussed in the previous chapter. In this respect the recent moves towards ‘equal partnership’ and ‘common responsibility’ based on full equality between the EU and Russia give grounds for arguing that the pendulum is currently clearly swinging away from the post-sovereign logic of integration towards a much more traditional understanding of inter-governmental cooperation between the partners.
