European Neighbourhood Policy and The EU’s Role as a Normative Power: The Case of Ukraine

Abstract

With its aspirations to be a global power, the European Union designed the European Neighbourhood Policy with the main aim of having an impact on democratisation in its neighbouring countries. This chapter elaborates the shortcomings of this policy in detail, through a case study of its inadequate impact on democratisation and stabilisation in Ukraine, one of the EU’s most important neighbourhood partners. This chapter also aims to reveal the contradiction between the EU’s normative vision and its security demands, and explore whether this policy supports the EU’s security needs or rather supplements the extension of its normative vision into its periphery.