Eastern Partnership Roadmap 2012 – 2013 And The European Enlargement Strategy: Main Challenges To The Conditionality And Differentiated Integration Principles

The paper aims to present the challenges faced by the EU in rendering the European Enlargement Strategy package and the Eastern Partnership Roadmap 2012 – 2013, both adopted in 2012, into efficient instruments to ensure deeper Europeanisation of its neighbourhood, as the continent is faced with numerous challenges. The current European context, marked by increasing Euro-skepticism and ongoing economic and financial struggle, is not helping either. It is important to point out the double – sided challenges faced by Europe’s neighbourhood: the difficulties are related to the relatively poor degrees of democratisation and modernisation. While faced with increasing turmoil in the Southern neighbourhood and difficult negotiations with the Western Balkan states, the EU risks to neglect its Eastern neighbours at a moment when they mostly need European assistance and engagement, for further deepening of their integration. Above all, the EU needs to consider ways in which it can give Eastern Partnership countries which have so far undertaken institutional reforms and with clear European aspirations, concrete perspectives for integration, similar to the Western Balkan states. The challenges faced by countries in the Eastern neighbourhood towards continued Europeanisation are multiple, both internal and external. It is high time for the EU to prioritize its approach towards these countries, building upon the lessons learnt from the negotiations with the Western Balkans.