Tobias Schumacher

Uncertainty at the EU's borders: narratives of EU external relations in the revised European Neighbourhood Policy towards the southern borderlands

This article analyses the role of narratives in European Union (EU) external relations in the revised European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and systematically explores how they operate in practice in the context of the EUs border management practices vis-à-vis the “southern borderlands”, in particular with respect to their inclusionary and exclusionary potential. Key EU documents and statements by EU agents, released throughout the first three years of Arab uprisings and pertaining to the revised ENP, will be subjected to a thorough examination which highlights four observations: first, in spite of the fact that the revised ENP is rooted in several narratives, some nevertheless dominate over others; second, the simultaneous presence of and recourse to different narratives contribute to an increase, rather than a decrease, of uncertainty in the EUs southern borderlands; third, despite a multitude of narratives which serve to legitimize EU action in the framework of the revised ENP, the latter perpetuates the logics of its predecessor by generating benefits mainly for the EU itself; fourth, that the first three years of the revised ENP have in practice demonstrated that an imbalance exists between on the one hand the original acceptance of the narratives by EU stakeholders and on the other hand their willingness to abide by them and fill them with life.

Russia's foreign policy towards North Africa in the wake of the Arab Spring

Since coming to power in 2000, Russian president Vladimir Putin has tried to construct a narrative of regaining Russias status as a major global power. However, in practice the Kremlin has yet to create a coherent strategy or achieve a sense of a co-ordinated foreign policy. While North Africa has not been at the forefront of this narrative, recently Moscow has intensified its diplomatic links and cooperation with the regimes in the region. The Arab Spring presented Russian policy makers with a series of challenges regarding the uncertainty of the developments in the region, but also with renewed economic opportunities. This profile analyses Moscows relationships with the countries in North Africa (Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria) in the wake of the Arab Spring. In each case the Kremlin aimed to take advantage of the new opportunities without really being guided by an overarching strategy for the region. However, Russia increasingly seems to be keen to position itself in the region as an alternative to the EU or the US, not least in light of the current war in Ukraine.

The Mediterranean as a New Foreign Policy Challenge? Sweden and the Barcelona Process

Since the inception of the Barcelona Process in November 1995 particular attention has been paid to the involvement of the EUs southern member countries in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP). Geographically close and historically tied to many of the states of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), they have attracted scholarly interest to a large extent whereas analysis of the contributions and interest of the northern member countries of the EU in the EMP is still in its infancy. By taking Sweden as a case study, this article takes the EUs northern enlargement into account and argues that the EMP nowadays also has an emerging northern dimension. The aim is to demonstrate that, while the Mediterranean as such is not high on the Swedish foreign policy agenda and while the discourse on Mediterranean issues is only weakly developed, Swedish engagement and interest in the Mediterranean has considerably increased since the countrys accession to the EU. Swedens arrival in the EU is still relatively recent and its Mediterranean policy is being influenced by both domestic politics and the current situation in the Middle East. None the less, the countrys activities, particularly in the social and cultural basket of the EMP, could contribute to reduce the so-called North-South divide that many perceive to affect the EUs Mediterranean Policy.

The 2011 Revised European Neighbourhood Policy : Continuity and Change in EU Foreign Policy

The EU’s relations with its eastern and southern neighbours have never attracted as much attention as in recent years. The outbreak of what was prematurely called the ‘Arab Spring’ in early 2011, the fall of supposedly consolidated autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the eruption and continuation of the civil war in Syria, the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh), the military coup of 3 July 2013 in Egypt leading to the ousting of the first ever democratically elected civilian Egyptian president, the Euromaidan revolution of 2013/2014 and the subsequent Russian annexation of the Crimea, followed by the emergence of territorial conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian military and paramilitary forces in eastern parts of Ukraine, growing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the deterioration of democratic standards and practices in Georgia, Moldova’s backsliding to corrupt and unresponsive (oligarchic) rule, unprecedented waves of human displacement—these are just some of the many dramatic developments in the EU’s neighbourhood that have recently emerged on the agenda of EU foreign-policy makers. In conjunction with the remnants of the financial and economic crisis, affecting both EU member states and European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) partner countries in the EU’s neighbourhood, and the persistence and re-emergence of ‘stubborn authoritarianism’, these developments have exposed the EU’s ENP to challenges unthinkable when it was originally launched in 2003. In parallel, EU membership of central and eastern European countries in 2004 and 2007, Croatia’s accession to the EU in 2013, the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty and thus the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS), have altered the EU and EU foreign policy making towards the neighbourhood from within.

Of Policy Entrepreneurship, bandwagoning and free-riding : EU member states and multilateral cooperation frameworks for Europe's southern neighbourhood

Over the past 25 years the EU and NATO have displayed considerable agency and thus influence as far as the development of institutionalised collective cooperation and/or foreign policy frameworks towards Europe’s southern neighbourhood is concerned. Against this backdrop, this article puts EU and NATO member states’ foreign policies towards their southern neighbourhood at its centre. After mapping their southern neighbourhood-related interests, it discusses how they have been pursuing these interests – to the extent that they exist – within and beyond the EU and NATO and examines whether this pursuit has resulted in concrete foreign policy action. The article focuses on the EU Big-5, i.e. France, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom (UK) and Germany, as well as Portugal, usually considered a “small state”. This choice allows for both a most deviant and a most similar case comparison and contrasts policy entrepreneurship (France, Spain, Italy) vis-à-vis Europe’s southern neighbourhood with bandwagoning and free-riding tendencies (Portugal) and a mix of opportunity-maximising and/or fence-sitting practices (United Kingdom and Germany).

The EU, Middle Eastern powers and milieu-shaping in the ‘shared’ Arab Mediterranean neighbourhood: a story of mutual neglect

ABSTRACT The EU and the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states have been engaged in milieu-shaping in their shared Arab Mediterranean neighbourhood. This article argues that this engagement has taken place in a disconnected way rather than in a coordinated fashion. The majority of GCC countries have been guided by neo-realist considerations with a focus on short- and mid-term gains and occasional recourse to hard power. In contrast, the EU, through its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), has long tried to circumvent geopolitics by focusing on long-term normative milieu-shaping, drawing on a mix of normative soft power tools. However, since the 2015 ENP review, this ambition is no longer central to EU foreign policy considerations. Instead, EU milieu-shaping goals are increasingly underpinned by neo-realist-inspired security concerns. Thus, an interest-based convergence between the EU and GCC countries is emerging in so far as also the EU is regarding its neighbourhood increasingly less through the prism of normative objectives. Yet, as will be demonstrated, and despite the EUs growing awareness for the necessity of cooperating with other powers in addressing an unstable neighbourhood, this convergence is unlikely to generate a shift from mutual neglect to systematic collaboration between the parties in their shared neighbourhood.

The European Neighbourhood Policy

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) applies to Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Ukraine. It aims to strengthen the prosperity, stability and security of all. It is based on democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and is a bilateral policy between the EU and each partner country, with regional cooperation initiatives: the Eastern Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean[1].