Kataryna Wolczuk

Implementation without Coordination: The Impact of EU Conditionality on Ukraine under the European Neighbourhood Policy

Abstract The article examines the impact of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) on domestic change in Ukraine during the period 2005–2007. Due to the interplay of external and domestic factors, no political leadership on European matters emerged in Ukraine under the ENP. The implementation of the Action Plan (AP)—the key instrument of the policy—has been left to the discretion of middle-level state officials, resulting in selective empowerment of sections of the state apparatus. However, without strong political engagement or an effective coordinating mechanism, this delivered slow, uneven and localised results. Nevertheless, despite the limited impact of the ENP, it is through the AP that the European Union has for the very first time started to affect domestic developments in Ukraine.

Convergence without membership? The impact of the European Union in the neighbourhood: evidence from Ukraine

How does the European Union (EU) affect change in neighbouring countries? The article explores this question, using Ukraine as a case study. So far Ukraine has attracted contradictory assessments of the impact of the EU on the countrys domestic transformation. To explain this puzzle, the process of Ukraines convergence with EU rules is analysed in terms of rule selection, adoption and application. The article focuses on the mechanisms which the EU uses to shape domestic actors’ incentives and capacities for taking on EU rules in each of the three dimensions. In the case of technical regulation, EU mechanisms affect domestic actors differently in the three dimensions, resulting in comprehensive rule selection but only selective rule adoption and application. The process of convergence occurs, but in a non-synchronized and highly idiosyncratic way, thereby indicating the patchy impact of the EU on its neighbours, even in the core economic field.

Spoiler or facilitator of democratization?: Russia's role in Georgia and Ukraine

In the post-Soviet space, Georgia and Ukraine are broadly perceived as exceptions to the growing authoritarianism in the region owing to the far-reaching political changes triggered by the so-called Colour Revolutions a decade ago. This article examines Russias reaction to political changes in Georgia and Ukraine in light of the interplay between the democracy-promotion policies implemented by the EU and US and domestic patterns of democratization. We argue that despite the relatively weak impact of EU and US policies vis-à-vis domestic structures, Russia has responded harshly to (what it perceives as) a Western expansionist agenda in pursuit of reasserting its own hegemonic position in the post-Soviet space. However, coercive pressure from Russia has also unintended, counterproductive effects. We argue that the pressure has actually made Georgia and Ukraine more determined to pursue their pro-Western orientation and has spawned democratization, thereby supporting the objectives of the Western democracy promoters.

Russia, the Eurasian Customs Union and the EU: Cooperation, Stagnation or Rivalry?

Until recently regional integration in the post-Soviet space had been largely declarative. However, the latest initiative, the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) appears more viable because of: first, a better institutional framework; second, a commitment to implementation followed by actual action (despite a range of transitional problems); and, third, the introduction of a system of rules harmonised with international norms and the WTO regime. This initiative has serious implications for EU-Russia relations in general and the EU’s strategy in the post-Soviet space, i.e. the ‘shared neighbourhood’, in particular. With the ECU, Russia offers a forward-looking, advanced form of economic integration and as such an alternative to EU-centered initiatives in the post-Soviet space. Ukraine has turned into a normative battleground where Russia endeavours to dissuade Ukraine from pursuing the landmark Association Agreement with the EU, containing the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) and is striving to get Ukraine to join the ECU instead. This emerging normative rivalry requires revisiting the EU’s approach to its ‘external governance’ approach in the Eastern neighbourhood in terms of short- and long-term opportunities and challenges.

Ukraine Between the EU and Russia: The Integration Challenge

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Eurasian Economic Integration

In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime emerged in the post-Soviet space: the Eurasian Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (ECU).

The EU’s Unexpected ‘Ideal Neighbour’? The Perplexing Case of Armenia’s Europeanisation

Abstract The question of why some countries adopt external policy is particularly salient with regard to Armenia. All indicators suggest that Armenia would be unlikely to respond to EU stimuli for reform. And yet, in the early 2010s, Armenia vigorously adopted EU policy and institutional templates. This article seeks to explain this conundrum by exploring how EU policies (especially under the Eastern Partnership) feed into the domestic context and meet the agenda of national elites. The article deliberately departs from the mainstream explanations of ‘Europeanisation beyond accession’ and argues that closer scrutiny of the domestic context is a sine qua non for making sense of the baffling discrepancies in neighbouring states’ responses to EU policies. The case of Armenia vividly demonstrates the imperative for re-assessing the approaches that have so far focused on EU-level factors and for bringing together EU variables with a detailed analysis of the domestic and regional contexts.

Eurasian economic integration: implications for the EU Eastern policy: Law, Policy and Politics

In this well-researched and detailed book, the editors provide an extensive and critical analysis of post-Soviet regional integration. After almost two decades of unfulfilled integration promises, a new – improved and functioning – regime emerged in the post-Soviet space: the Eurasian Customs Union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan (ECU).

Beyond geopolitics: exploring the impact of the EU and Russia in the “contested neighborhood”

While the geopolitical rivalry between the European Union (EU) and Russia over their common neighborhood has increasingly attracted academic and public attention, relatively little is known of its actual influence on domestic institutions and policies. This special issue aims to address this deficit by investigating the joint impact of the EU and Russia on the domestic dynamics of sectoral reform in neighboring countries (NCs) – a key declared goal of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership (EaP) – in the areas of trade, natural resources, and migration and mobility. It examines the nature of the instruments deployed by the EU and Russia to change domestic reform processes and their impact on domestic actors in the post-Soviet space. This introductory article outlines the key research questions to which answers have been sought by experts in their respective fields and summarizes their key empirical findings in the context of broader conceptual debates. Overall, the contributions to this special issue find a strong disconnect between participation in the EU’s or Russia’s macro-frameworks for regional integration and domestic sectoral reforms. We show that despite the increasing external competition over the post-Soviet space, domestic actors remain the key agents to account for the pattern of change in the contested neighborhood.

Managing the flows of gas and rules: Ukraine between the EU and Russia

The article explores the impact of the EU and Russia on domestic change in the gas sector in Ukraine. It seeks to identify the barriers to, and triggers for, Ukraine’s alignment with EU rules against the backdrop of Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia by focusing on the institutionalization of energy relations. By studying the whole post-Soviet period, this article provides a comprehensive overview of the interplay of domestic and external factors shaping the energy sector in Ukraine and illuminates the often paradoxical effects of external influences on domestic actors’ preferences and strategies. We argue that EU influence was ineffective in overcoming domestic barriers to reforms and that it was Russia’s coercive actions that have led to the adoption of EU rules by Ukraine, despite powerful domestic vested interests and the weaknesses in EU’s policy.