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Future EU: Do neighboring countries have a chance to become members?
The European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) serves as the EU's external relations tool and aims to promote connections between the EU and its eastern and southern neighbours. These include countries seeking to become members of, or integrate more closely with, the EU. Nonetheless, this policy does not cover the EU’s most peripheral neighbors, such as France’s possessions in South America. Relative to the countries bordering EU member states on land, the ENP mainly involves southern countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. and other eastern countries.
Under the provisions of the ENP, the EU provides financial assistance to neighboring countries that meet the conditions for government and economic reforms.
Policy History
The European Neighborhood Policy was first proposed by the European Commission in 2003 with the aim of promoting closer ties between Europe and its neighbours, following the 2004 enlargement of the new EU member states, to avoid the need to draw new borders in Europe . This policy is intended to create a surrounding circle of countries that could one day be further integrated, but not necessarily become full members of the EU.
Theoretically, the EU views these neighbors as an "enlarged partnership," but the actual path to membership remains unclear.
Source of funds
The European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI), which has been in force since 2014, provides financial support for the ENP. The main principles of this instrument are to incentivize optimal performance and provide faster, flexible funding. ENI, with a budget of €15.4 billion, is funded primarily through a number of projects and replaces the earlier European Neighborhood and Partnership Policy Instrument (ENPI).
Protocol
The recent agreement mainly covers two major policies: the Stability and Association Process (SAP) and the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). EU membership is often left unspecified in these agreements, leaving Mediterranean and Eastern European neighbors with uncertainty over the process of actually facing membership issues.
These agreements have been criticized as being more oriented toward meeting EU interests than being an equal partnership.
Challenges and Criticisms
Although ENP is designed as a platform to promote cooperation and reform, its actual operation faces many challenges. Critics point out that when promoting its common values and norms, the EU often adopts a "top-down" governance approach, which limits the space for the opinions and suggestions of "partner" countries.
Especially during the Arab Spring, there were endless criticisms about corruption and interest relationships between the EU and Mediterranean countries.
Future Outlook
How the EU’s proximity policy will continue to evolve in the future, and what role it might play in the integration of its eastern and southern neighbours, remains an open question. Although some neighboring countries still have expectations for integration, whether the real political and social challenges can be overcome will determine whether these countries can move closer to the EU, or what their future direction will be?
