Rule of Law Promotion in the European Neighbourhood Policy

The study analyses the interplay of normative and strategic aspects in the European Neighbourhood Policy. The book argues that the EU’s Rule of Law promotion policy in four neighbouring countries – Moldova, Morocco, Tunisia and Ukraine – is best explained by combining institutional, ideational, interdependence and third-country related factors. The study brings abstract concepts from the EU foreign policy literature, such as normative power or composite policy, into the realm of empirical research. In substantive terms, the study investigates the EU’s Rule of Law policy making and the adopted policy outputs in four issue areas: counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, anti-corruption and judicial reform. The comparative analysis of the case studies calls into question the common assumption that the EU’s institutional features pre-dispose it to act as a normative power in international relations. It is rather shown that third country related factors need to feature prominently in future explanatory frameworks. With respect to the debate on the nature of the EU’s power, the study concludes that hybrid projections prevail.