Paper Titles & Abstracts

The ability of the EU to promote and project its norms in its eastern neighbourhood has been doubted due to the lack of the incentives, resources or legitimacy of the norms, the role of other international actors or inconsistency of policies. However, the rule transfer happens, but with the ambivalent results. The question to which extent the EU can influence domestic changes in its neighbourhood is a main interest of this study. This study tries to investigate the main factors which explain the success or failure of the rule transfer looking from a broader perspective in which EU factors are combined with domestic ones and impact from other international actors (mainly Russia).The paper analyses the potential and limitations of the EU's influence in eastern neighbourhood by studying cases of rule compliance in specific sectors in Belarus and Ukraine in order to identify the key factors of successful compliances and conditions under which it happens. Firstly, the instruments of the EU external governance applied are analysed. Secondly, the preferences of domestic actors, available resources as well as interests and impact of other international actors are studied in order to understand the limitations of the EU impact to induce domestic change. The paper combines rational institutionalist and constructivist approaches and focuses on two particular areas of cooperation: trade and environment.