The Eastern Partnership: Geopolitics and policy inertia

Abstract

On the eve of its tenth anniversary, the EU’s Eastern Partnership seems to be drifting towards placing greater emphasis on differentiation and stabilisation than on reforms. This contrasts with the transformative ambitions displayed by the EU when it launched this new initiative in 2009. These ambitions have produced mixed results and were partly abandoned in the 2015 European Neighbourhood Policy Review. Since then, policy inertia seems to have prevailed. This exposes the EU to the risk that its relations with its eastern partners will become increasingly geopoliticised. This might lead the EU to lower its transformative ambitions even further. And this, in turn, could throw into question a fundamental aspect of its foreign policy identity, the EU’s role as a transformative power. In other words, such a development might not only weaken the EU’s role in its eastern neighbourhood but also undermine the added value of its foreign policy.