The Role of Partnership in EU Foreign Policy Elena Korosteleva International Politics Aberystwyth University CES staff seminar, 3 May 2011

Plan  Brief project description  The concept of partnership: defining partnership in international relations the use of partnership in EU external relations ENP and partnership: limitations and difficulties  Governance as a tool for the neighbourhood  Implications

ESRC-funded project ‘Europeanising or Securitising the outsiders? Assessing the EU’s partnership-building approach with Eastern Europe’ ( ) Methodology:  Surveys: published in EU and conducted in EE  Over 100 interviews (across the border): government officials, MPs, media and civil society members; MS representations, EU delegations,  Focus groups  School essays on Europe For more information: projects/europeanising-securitising-outsiders/

The meaning of partnership in IR Partnership is defined as occurring ‘when actors adjust their behaviour to the actual or anticipated preferences of others, through a process of policy coordination’ (Keohane 1986 )  Strategy of reciprocity: contingency and equivalence  Awareness of a determinate future Partnership, thus, to be effective, presumes both a learning process about partners’ needs and preferences, as well as an anticipated outcome, which may initially be driven by self- interest and eventually shaped by joint commitment to the assured future of mutual benefits and responsibilities

The EU and partnership  ENP is a policy that sees no future and offers no reciprocity of gains: it is a set of instruments to cultivate Europe in the neighbourhood (Füle 2011)  The policy where partnership is intended but not defined  The policy that struggles to define the place of Russia in it: the centre-periphery divide  The policy that offers anything but partnership

The EU and governance  Governance as an ‘inside-out’ approach (Lavenex 2004)  The hierarchical nature of governance  The problem of ‘othering’  EU-centred vision of governance

Partnership/Governance nexus  Governance through ‘mutual recognition’ formula  The centrality of partnership in the formula The discourse of inclusion, which in the heart of EU foreign policy, needs to be of ‘negotiated order, in which not only the outcomes, but also the process itself of the EU boundary setting is a matter of negotiation’ (Smith 1996:23)

Implications Neighbourhood in a way provides a test ground for the EU construction of self as a Transformative Power. It is important to ensure that the EU enhances its credibility through effective policy-implementation in the neighbourhood. Potential limitations: 1) Lack of resources; 2) Diverted attention: southern neighbourhood; EAS; etc 3) No vision or strategy for the future 4) No understanding of ‘othering’ and its salience for EU self- representation