EUÕs Influence in Its Eastern Neighbourhood: The Case of Crisis Management in the Southern Caucasus

While the European Neighbourhood Policy has been largely inspired by the successive experiences of enlargement, it has also been designed partly not to replicate exactly enlargement approaches. Key differences include the existence of unresolved conflicts in the EU neighbourhood and the development of European security provisions since 1999, parallel to the traditional economic instruments of cooperation. This paper attempts to assess what lessons can be learnt from the ENP early experience regarding its impact on conflict resolution. It examines negotiations of EU economic support and peace-building efforts with South Caucasus countries and Moldova and builds upon these case studies to draw general lessons on the influence of the EU as an international actor. The article concludes that EU commitments in promoting conflict prevention partly fall short when they have to be implemented, due to the lack of coherence among Member States, while EU impact is real when main policy-makers and implementers are Europeanised in their working methods, and when EU member states agree to delegate their foreign policy to the EU.