Promoting and Sustaining Security in Europe: the EU and its Neighbours
Promoting and Sustaining Security in Europe: the EU and its Neighbours

Summary/Abstract: Through continuous processes of enlargement, the European Union (EU) has extended the benefits ofaccession to new regions in Europe and has eroded the division lines of the Cold War. Through its emergentNeighbourhood Policy (ENP) it is now looking for ways to continue this process of positive spill over towards itsdirect neighbours. The success of the EU’s security policies at this regional level is particularly relevant for its claimsof being a relevant international security actor, and the ENP sponsors a multifaceted approach to security,combining all policy instruments available to the EU, with a vision of increased political association and economicintegration between the EU and its neighbours. In this context, is there a role for the EU to play as a promoter ofsecurity in its neighborhood? What vision does it sponsor and promote? There are several problems with the EU’sapproach, which explain why the EU has had limited success in promoting security. The first problem is the lack of along-term vision of how relations with the neighbours will look like and the second is the ability of the EU to makeuse of its diplomatic tools to be a central interlocutor among other regional and global powers.

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