Back to the Future: The ‘New’ ENP towards the Southern Neighbourhood and the End of Ambition. College of Europe Policy Brief #1.16, January 2016

Schumacher, Tobias (2016) Back to the Future: The ‘New’ ENP towards the Southern Neighbourhood and the End of Ambition. College of Europe Policy Brief #1.16, January 2016. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Executive Summary > The ‘new’ ENP marks the end of a period, stretching over almost two and a half decades, during which the EU was determined to politicise relations with its Arab neighbours and put the promotion of, and support for, reforms at the centre of its policies. > The ‘new’ ENP is a blow for reform actors in the EU’s Southern neighbourhood and for anyone who was hoping that the EU was serious with its normative and values-based approach. > The ENP Review 2015 is a step back when compared to its two predecessors, the revised ENP of 2011 and the original ENP of 2003/2004, as it leads to the substantiation of, and support for, autocratic rule in the EU’s Southern neighbourhood. > The objective of pleasing both EU member states and governmental partners in the EU’s neighbourhood meant ‘squaring the circle’ and, given the reform aversion of most Southern neighbourhood regimes, resulted in a major downgrading of the ENP’s future ambitions. This is particularly obvious as far as the new ENP’s cornerstones - stabilisation, ownership and differentiation - are concerned.

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