Paper Titles & Abstracts

The paper examines the implications of the formation of the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) for the EU's policy towards eastern neighbours, against the backdrop of the specific features of the EU's policy and Russia's approach to their common neighbourhood. It is argued that the emergence of the ECU and possible enlargement towards other post-Soviet countries, such as Ukraine, exerts a strongly constraining force on the influence of the EU in the region. The ECU means that the EU is no longer the only actor promoting deep economic integration premised on ex-ante regulatory convergence in the post-Soviet space. To illustrate the constraining effects of the ECU on the Eastern Partnership, the paper focuses on two case studies: Ukraine and Belarus, a non-member and member of the ECU, respectively. It is argued that the resulting increased complexity of interactions and dependencies in the common neighbourhood would necessitate from the EU a more self-reflective, purposeful and contextualised policy towards the post-Soviet states.