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Variable Geometries: Mapping Ideas, Institutions and Power in the Wider Europe. CEPS Working Document, No. 254, 30 November 2006

Tassinari, Fabrizio. (2006) Variable Geometries: Mapping Ideas, Institutions and Power in the Wider Europe. CEPS Working Document, No. 254, 30 November 2006. [Working Paper]

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    Abstract

    The controversies and ambiguities characterising the EU neighbourhood strategy are ultimately due to the fact that the wider Europe concerns the conceptual, strategic and spatial limits of Europe. It is in this wider Europe that the EU as process meets the EU as actor. It is here that its ‘gravitational power’ meets its ‘normative power’. It is here that the sui-generis EU governance system meets its foreign policy capabilities. By exploring the meanings and possible usages of the term ‘variable geometry’, this study sets out to interpret how the deepening of relations between the European Union and its neighbours in the East, South-East and South shapes the conceptual political and strategic map of the wider European space. Three dimensions of variable geometries are distinguished. The first dimension relates to ideas and focuses on the way in which the EU as a polity affects, and is affected by, deeper relations with its neighbours. Second, the focus is on institutions and illustrates the rationale behind and options for deeper institutional integration of neighbours into the EU. Lastly, the study ventures into an analysis of the wider Europe as a power constellation and thus explains what variable geometry means in relation to security and stability in the European neighbourhood. This basic tri-partition is then applied to two topical cases: Turkey and Ukraine.

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    Item Type: Working Paper
    Uncontrolled Keywords: Ukraine.
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > Treaty reform > enlargement
    EU policies and themes > External relations > European Neighbourhood Policy
    Countries > Turkey
    Countries > Ukraine
    EU policies and themes > EU institutions & developments > institutional development/policy > multi-speed integration
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels) > CEPS Working Documents
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 23 Feb 2008
    Page Range: p. 36
    Last Modified: 06 Apr 2012 12:09
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7378

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