Paper Titles & Abstracts

This paper critically assesses the Eastern Partnership (EaP) as the new EU-driven integrative scheme during the 2009-2013. It does so through a cross-country study analysis of Ukraine and Moldova. The aim is to question whether the EU has secured transposition of its norms and whether or not through these norms it has managed to induce significant democratic and political transformation within the three partner countries. Hence, the paper assesses EU external effectiveness in terms of coherence and outcome. It seeks to underline if the EU has upgraded its actorness in the region post-Lisbon. The paper parts from two theoretical frameworks - EU external governance and the EU as a normative power. The first fits well to the EaP, with the EU seeking to secure regulatory approximation of its partner countries through sectoral integration in line with the acquis in selected policy domains. The second argues that the EU derives its legitimacy through being value-based, implying that it has the capacity to trigger democratic and political transformation in its neighbouring countries.Research will focus on the regulatory convergence in the selected EaP countries within two policy areas: trade and energy policy. Overall, the paper maps out whether the EU has induced a) greater sectoral approximation in these areas and b) political transformation among the three EaP countries. This in turn will show whether the EU's external policy, the EaP is an effective one in term of having "added value" in comparison to the previous framework - the ENP.