Externalizing EU Governance: The Case of the European Neighborhood Policy

Since 2001, the EU has been developing the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in order to cope with the challenges resulting from this new political landscape. With the exception of Belarus and Russia, the European Union’s Eastern neighbours are intent on acquiring a perspective for EU membership in the near future. In order to meet these objectives, the EU promotes democratic and economic reforms in the countries located along its border and, in so doing, it strives to foster political stability and security in the wider Europe. To this end the paper explores the ‘governance approach’ in EU studies demonstrating that it is well-equipped to explain the development of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as a form of ‘externalization of EU governance’.  

Stefan Ganzle is associate professor at the Department of Political Science and Management, University of Agder. Before coming to Norway, he was a senior researcher at the German Development Institute in Bonn from 2008-09. He has been visiting assistant professor at University of British Columbia and a research fellow at the University of Jena, the European University Institute (EUI) as well as a researcher-in-residence at the OSCE. His interests lie in the field of international relations, European integration and EU foreign policy broadly conceived. He is the author of Die Europaische Union als außenpolitischer Akteur: Eine Fallstudie am Beispiel der EU-Politik gegenuber den baltischen Staaten und Russland [The European Union’s Foreign Policy in the Making: The Case of the Baltic States and Russia], Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2007 and the editor (with Allen G. Sens) of The Changing Politics of European Security: Europe Alone?, London: Palgrave, 2007. His most recent book is Adapting to European Integration? The Case of the Russian Exclave of Kaliningrad, Manchester University Press 2008, which he co-edited with Guido Muntel/Evgeny Vinokurov. Other publications have appeared in International Journal, Conflict and Cooperation, Defense Nationale, Higher Education, Europe-Asia Studies and Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte.