The ENP and the Southern Caucasus: Meeting the Expectations?

Abstract

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was developed as a response to the new political environment created by the last two rounds of European Union enlargement and as a potential means to solve the ‘inclusion-exclusion dilemma.’1 It is a unique policy which unites separate geographical and political regions within one single framework of the EU’s external relations. The most striking feature of the ENP within the EU’s foreign policy is this regional dimension. The main criterion for countries to be involved in the ENP is their geographical location: that is, the neighbourhood of the Union. The ENP covers such regions as Eastern Europe, the Southern Caucasus and the Mediterranean, with each of which the EU previously had a separate framework of cooperation.2