European Neighbourhood Policy

Slovakia’s relations with the states of Eastern Europe not only have a bilateral impact, but contain geopolitical, security and economic dimensions as well. This article analyzes the domestic, bilateral and multilateral aspects of relations between Slovakia and Russia before and after the parliamentary elections of 1998, when Slovakia adopted a pro-Western course aimed at EU and NATO membership. The article also focuses on bilateral relations with Ukraine, where Slovakia is among the most active supporters of Ukraine’s future EU membership. The final sections analyze the Eastern policy of Slovakia – particularly within the framework of the EU’s Eastern Partnership and the Visegrad Group – as well as Slovakia’s relations with the new Eastern European partners, such as Belarus, Moldova and Georgia, as target countries of Slovakia’s “soft power.”

The contemporary scene of borders and border space in Europe is composed of a series of parameters: (a) the eastward enlargement of the European Union; (b) the European Neighbourhood Policy launched by the European Union’s new strategy; and (c) the 9/11 terrorist attack, which, imperatively, addressed the issue of security. These developments have triggered a discussion concerning the future borders of European Union. What are Europe’s borders and where do they end? How far should the European Union’s borders extend following the next round of enlargement? What is the European Union’s approach with regard to its external surroundings? What is considered to be European and what is not? All the above are merely questions that are brought to the fore, initiating a series of dilemmas and syllogisms. The present article attempts firstly to examine the political and economic geography responsible for synthesizing the new image of borders in Europe in general, and in Southeastern Europe af...

What constitutes the failure of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership? Which fallacies and truisms that stood at the outset of the theoretical conception of the Barcelona Process should have been scrutinized more in depth back then and ought to be reconsidered today? Based on these misconceptions was the Partnership doomed to be a miscarriage, or could failures have been avoided under a different practical regime. Finally, what would constitute such a regime and what is the way ahead? The Kingdom of Morocco , largest beneficiary of financial programmes by the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and arguably the most rapidly adapting member, will serve as a case study.

Purpose-This paper analyses how neighbourhood governance of social care affects the scope for frontline workers to address health inequities of older ethnic minorities. We critically discuss how an area-based, generic approach to service provision limits and enables frontline workers' efforts to reach out to ethnic minority elders, using a relational approach to place. This approach emphasises social and cultural distances to social care and understands efforts to bridge these distances as "relational work". Design/methodology/approach-The authors conducted a two-year multiple case study of the cities of Nijmegen and The Hague, the Netherlands, following the development of policies and practices relevant to ethnic minority elders. They conducted 44 semi-structured interviews with managers, policy officers and frontline workers as well as 295 h of participant observation at network events and meeting activities. Findings-Relational work was open-ended and consisted of a continuous reorientation of goals and means. In some cases, frontline workers spanned neighbourhood boundaries to connect with professional networks, key figures and places meaningful to ethnic minority elders. While neighbourhood governance is attuned to equality, relational work practice fosters possibilities for achieving equity. Research limitations/implications-Further research on achieving equity in relational work practice and more explicit policy support of relational work is needed. Originality/value-The paper contributes empirical knowledge about how neighbourhood governance of social care affects ethnic minority elders. It translates a relational view of place into a "situational" social justice approach.

There is a long lineage in neighbourhood research that has underpinned sustained academic and policy interest in the UK centred on understanding how spatial ‘clusters’ of neighbourhood-based deprivation might be destabilised. This has seen the privileging of composite indices in the analysis of deprivation which have been criticised for fostering a common perception that deprived neighbourhoods are homogeneous in terms of their compositions and underlying structures. Such indices have also been criticised for being ineffective at capturing temporal change, providing only static snapshots of deprivation at particular points in time. This paper focuses on patterns of deprived neighbourhood change in the Greater Manchester city-region between 2001 and 2007. It develops a typology of neighbourhood change that is triangulated with three complementary typologies capturing the socioeconomic and demographic compositions of deprived neighbourhoods; the functional roles played by deprived neighbourhoods in redistributing population through migration; and the spatial contexts in which deprived neighbourhoods are located. The analysis reveals that an over reliance on static indices to measure deprivation has long-served to conceal complexities in the way that deprived neighbourhoods change, owing to their variable structures and contexts. It illustrates the danger that lies in treating all deprived neighbourhoods in the same way.

Although EU democracy assistance (DA) policy has been criticized both before and after the Arab Uprisings for reflecting a one-size-fits-all (neo) liberal script, there is little detailed exploration of how exactly EU policy is ‘liberal’. With this objective, this article examines the conceptual structure of ‘democracy’ in key policy documents. It finds that the ideas of democracy and its promotion remain virtually unchanged after the uprisings. Specifically, the analysis shows that, first, democracy is understood as involving a balance between state and civil society. Second, that while the indivisibility of human rights—particularly civil, political, social, and economic—is proclaimed, civil and political rights far outweigh social and economic rights in their importance vis-a`-vis democracy in EU policy. Third, that the role of socio-economic rights progressively is being marginalized as individual policy documents develop. Fourth, that conceptions of civil society in these documents marginalize trade unions and other actors focusing on socio-economic rights. Finally, that socio-economic issues gradually are being redefined as matters not of rights but of trade and aid. This fundamentally reverses the moral economy of obligations attached to socio-economic issues: from a focus on would-be democratizing populations as right-bearers to their reconceptualization as morally and financially indebted recipients of charity.

Pour qu’un conflit se termine, il faut soit qu’il se résolve par une entente plus ou moins satisfaisante entre les parties, soit que l’une des parties s’impose aux autres qui abandonnent leur opposition, de guerre lasse ou par manque de moyens. Il y a donc une nécessaire dichotomie à opérer entre trois éléments du conflit: la transformation politique, l'intensité de la belligérance et la rivalité stratégique.

Conflict resolution features strongly as an objective of the European Union's foreign policy. In promoting this aim, the EU's geographical focus has rested primarily in its beleaguered backyard to the south and to the east. Taking a strong comparative approach, Nathalie Tocci explores the principal determinants of conflict dynamics in Cyprus, Turkey, Serbia-Montenegro, Israel-Palestine and Georgia in order to assess the impact of EU contractual ties on them. The volume includes topical analyzis based on first-hand experience, in-depth interviews with all the relevant actors and photography in ongoing conflict areas in the Middle East, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans and the Caucasus. This revealing study shows that the gap between EU potential and effectiveness often rests in the specific manner in which the EU collectively chooses to conduct its contractual relations.

The URBEX project aims at increasing our knowledge of the spatial dimensions ofurban social exclusion and integration by comparing eleven cities in six countries in Europe. The comparison is made on the basis of a common statistical analysis and the application of a common analytical framework and commonly designed fieldwork. The programme’s focus is on the spatial patterns of exclusion, and on the extent to which concentrations of deprivation create added problems for the development of effective policy responses. The research investigates and compares the extent to which groups
experiencing social exclusion are spatially segregated in different European cities. It also examines whether spatial segregation aggravates exclusion and whether this makes
the task of combating exclusion more difficult. Moreover, it considers the trajectoriesand coping strategies of individuals in a condition of need, how they enter this condition and how they try to cope with and get out of it. Finally, it considers the impact of
different policy initiatives designed to combat exclusion in areas where problems of deprivation and exclusion are concentrated.

In the last decade, the common foreign and security policy of the European Union (EU) has balanced between consolidation and regionalization and has been based on an idealistic rather than realistic approach. Its main tool implemented towards countries of the Eastern Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East is the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). Launched in 2004, in peculiar circumstances, shortly after the biggest enlargement of the EU, the ENP ought to constitute a new formula of bilateral relations with its new neighbours. The key task of the ENP is to stabilize relations with the EU's neighbours, to develop political, economic and social cooperation, to ensure EU stability and predictability beyond its borders. The EU enticed partner countries with the perspective of future membership of the EU or advanced forms of association. In fact, the ENP can be seen as a substitute for the Union's enlargement that has previously been the main vehicle for the Union's normative power in Europe. Until now no partner country has been granted the realistic perspective of full membership. Generally, the ENP is criticized for inappropriate goals and inflexible implementation. The main aim of this paper is to briefly refer to:-the goals of the ENP when it was launched;-the process of implementation of the ENP and its results;-reasons for its ineffectiveness in the current formula;-possible changes in the ENP after adoption of the EU's Global Strategy.

The article seeks to advance the understanding of the shifting European Union (EU)-Russia interaction in Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus by exploring both the EU’s policies and responses to Russia’s initiatives in the region. Drawing on different strands of literature (regionalism, international relations and EU foreign policy analysis), it identifies three scope conditions under which to expect EU policies to influence the interaction with Russia in the shared neighbourhood: the degree of integration offered to post-Soviet countries as part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)/Eastern Partnership (EaP); the extent to which the EU seeks to link Russia with the ENP/EaP; and the degree of internal coherence on the EU’s interaction with Russia. The article argues that all three conditions have contributed to shaping interaction with Russia, albeit to different degrees. It is primarily the EU’s new role of a region-builder as part of the EaP that triggered Russia’s counter-actions, thereby resulting in a growing competition for influence in what has become a contested neighbourhood.

The Minsk peace process that was set up to address the Ukraine crisis has had a bumpy ride from the start. The current conflict has its origins in the Kremlin’s reaction to the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine: Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014 and has orchestrated a war in the east of Donbas. In January 2017, some veterans of Ukraine’s volunteer battalions blockaded pro-Russian separatist-held territories in the eastern Donbas, the so-called ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (DPR) and ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’ (LPR). After unsuccessful attempts to disperse the veterans and activists blocking several checkpoints, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gave in to increasing public support for the blockade and transformed a rogue operation into official Ukrainian government policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin responded with a decree to recognise certain personal identity documents issued by the breakaway ‘republics’, and separatists ‘nationalised’ Ukrainian companies in the eastern Donbas.
These events have led the National Bank of Ukraine to revise downwards its previous economic growth forecast for 2017; indeed, the blockade poses a major challenge to companies located in both the eastern and western Donbas due to the interconnection of their production cycles. The blockade exposed the failure of the so-called ‘Rotterdam Plus’ formula − a new methodology for calculating wholesale market prices on electricity, intended to help Ukraine diversify its energy sector. But ultimately, the blockade by Kyiv, the recognition by Russia of the separatist republics’ identity documents and the ‘nationalisation’ of Ukrainian companies in the eastern Donbas amount to yet another blow for the Minsk peace process.

How to reconcile a European policy in the Mediterranean
able to involve Egypt as a reliable partner and, at the same time, to ensure the promotion of essential European values in the field of civil and political rights? Where and how can the EU act to incorporate Egypt into a process of regional integration and cooperation on issues of shared importance? How can the EU deal with its loss of leverage in Egypt and in the region as a whole? Will heads of member states continue to look the other way as private sector bilateral deals are signed with a military regime systematically targeting the rights of Egyptian citizens? For European policy makers these issues raise further questions related to broader foreign policy strategy, commitment to deeper democracy, and the kind of relationship we want to maintain with Egypt.

And be good to the neighbour who is your relative and to the neighbour who is not a relative . . . (Qur'an, 4:36)

Islam has great respect for the mutual rights and duties of neighbours. The Holy Prophet said:

Jibra'1 always used to advise me to be generous with neighbours, till I thought that Allah was going to include the neighbours among the heirs of a Muslim.

The rights of neighbourhood are not meant for Muslim neighbours only. of course, a Muslim neighbour has one more claim upon us - that of Islamic brotherhood.


Explaining it, the Holy Prophet said:
Neighbours are of three kinds:

(1) that one who has got one right upon you;

(2) that one who has got two rights upon you;

(3) that one who has got three rights upon you.

The neighbour having three rights upon you is the one who is also a Muslim and a relative. The neighbour having two rights is the one who is either a non-Muslim or a non-relative Muslim.

The neighbour having one right is the one who is neither a Muslim nor a relative. Still he has got all the claims of neighbourhood-rights upon you.

Here are some more traditions which show the Islamic love towards the neighbours:

The Holy Prophet said:
That man is not from me who sleeps contentedly while his neighbor sleeps hungry.

The issue of neighbours is of interest and concern to all. Disputes and feuds regularly hit the headlines. A bad neighbour is something to be dreaded, while a good neighbour is, as the saying goes, worth his or her weight in gold. Islam has plenty to say about neighbours. The Prophet’s statements quoted in Neighbour’s Rights, although over fourteen hundred years old, are as topical and relevant today as they were then. Much may have changed in the physical surroundings in which we live, but human nature is the same as ever, and we still need guidance on how we should treat one another. Islam shows us how to deal with our fellow human beings—and our own neighbourhood is a good place to start. This book Neighbour's Rights According to the Sunnah and the Example of the Salaf by Ali Hasan A. Abdul-Hamid is a good book to start.

This article engages with political region building by examining the
diverging conceptions of the Baltic Sea region since the 1970s. It
maps the fuzzy geography arising from the enmeshment of territory
with a multitude of frameworks for regional action. After 1989, the
region became the object of interregional and neighborhood policies
established by the European Union, with shifting territorial delimitations
according to various internal and geopolitical needs of the day.
Drawing on functional, relational, and administrative perspectives, it is
shown how spatial definitions surrounding the Baltic Sea region have
varied over the past fifty years, revealing those transnational connections
that have been valued as worthwhile political investments.

This policy brief analyses the recent security challenges generated by authoritarian regimes in the EU’s neighborhood and the broader implications for the EU’s strategy of dealing with authoritarianism, which should be made more intelligent and consistent so as to minimize interdependence with authoritarian regimes and their opportunities to blackmail and manipulate democratic societies.

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has its roots in the successes and consequences of enlargement but it developed in a context where membership seemed less and less available for countries of the periphery. One might therefore ask whether the ENP has been a substitute for enlargement. Reviewing the origins, content, achievements and evolutions of the policy, this contribution argues that whilst the ENP was not necessarily designed as an alternative for accession it certainly constituted an attempt to replicate the kind of transformative power generated in the framework of enlargement policy; an attempt that was ultimately without success. The ENP should instead move away from the ghost of enlargement and be constituted as more coherent and more assertive foreign policy instrument.

Focusing on the EU’s relations with its periphery, this paper takes issue both with persistent ‘normative’ conceptions of the EU’s international role in the European Studies literature and with the constructivist–rationalist divide in IR theory. The conceptualization of the EU – a vast, composite and ever-expanding entity with ‘fuzzy’ borders – as an empire of sorts bridges the theoretical divide and offers a powerful explanation of the EU’s behaviour vis-à-vis its vicinity.

Through the transfer of rules and practices beyond its borders, the EU is indeed engaged in ‘normative’ policies, which however primarily serve the security and economic interests of the EU and its Member States. Thus, the EU’s (allegedly) norm-based behaviour is in itself a utility-maximizing strategy, which also serves the construction of a normative identity. The EU’s response to the Arab uprisings serves to illustrate the argument, with the concept of ‘empire’ resolving the puzzle of seemingly inconsistent EU policies.

ნაშრომი განიხილავს საქართველოს ეკონომიკური გარდაქმნების ისტორიას სსრკ-ს
დაცემის შემდგომ 1991 წელს დამოუკიდებლობის აღდგენის, დემოკრატიული
ახელმწიფოს დაფუძნების, გეგმიური ეკონომიკიდან ლიბერალური საბაზრო ეკონომიკისკენ გარდაქმნისა და ევროკავშირთან ახლო ინტეგრაციის მცდელობების განმავლობაში. ნაშრომი ასევე მიმოიხილავს ამ პერიოდში ეკონომიკურ განვითარებაზე მოქმედ სხვადასხვა პოლიტიკურ თუ სოციალურ ფაქტორებს.

The literature on the European Union's influence in its Eastern neighbourhood has tended to focus on EU-level policies and prioritise EU-related variables. This book seeks to overcome this EU-centric approach by connecting EU policy transfer to the domestic and regional environment in which it unfolds. It looks at the way in which the EU seeks to influence domestic change in the post-Soviet countries participating in the European Neighbourhood Policy/Eastern Partnership and domestic receptivity to EU policies and templates. It seeks to disentangle the various dynamics behind domestic change (or lack thereof) in Eastern Partnership countries, including EU policy mechanisms, domestic elites' preferences and strategies, regional interdependences and Russia's policies. Based upon extensive empirical investigation on EU policies in four countries: Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine – and in two pivotal policy sectors – the book provides systematic and nuanced understanding of complex forces at work in the policy transfer process. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of international relations , European studies, democratization studies, and East European Politics and area studies, particularly post-Soviet/Eurasian studies.

With the aim to understand if and how Georgia is progressing in the implementation of the Association Agreement (AA), this paper explores the state of Georgia’s development of good governance, the rule of law, justice and the independence of the judiciary, protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of mass media, as well as progress within the economic sector. The study shows that the country faces systemic challenges with the implementation of the political part of the AA, whereas the implementation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) can claim some success.
The established form of governance has given birth to a functional but substantially hybrid state characterised by a top-down form of governance, personalisation of domestic politics and centralisation of power. What we have from the European Union’s side towards the state-building process in Georgia is the accommodation of local cultures of governance, as the EU’s rhetoric about Georgia being a frontrunner of the Eastern Partnership and a success story when it comes to the development of democracy is in sharp contrast with the actual reality. Bearing these conclusions in mind, the paper produces recommendations for the EU on how to frame its future policies towards Georgia in order to improve the implementation process. (from page113)

Several events in the past few years have dramatically shown how the interests of European citizens are directly affected by the stability, security and prosperity of their neighbouring regions. At the same time, the European Union and its member states face many challenges and dilemmas in designing and pursuing policies that not only effectively promote these interests, but also build stronger partnerships with neighbouring countries based on the values on which the Union is founded. First the Arab revolts and then Russia's assertiveness in the eastern neighbourhood prompted reviews by the EU of its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), in 2011 and 2015, respectively. These reviews, in turn, have renewed scholarly interest in the ENP. By deliberately focusing on the recent literature (since 2011), this book by CEPS identifies the factors that explain the (lack of) effectiveness and coherence of the ENP. This exercise has resulted in a rich overview of and deep reflection on a wide variety of ENP-related themes, such as conditionality and leverage, the interests vs values dilemma and the role of third parties. The study identifies where there is consensus among scholars and where perspectives and judgements differ. It also identifies important gaps in the literature where further research is needed. This book will be of interest to a wide audience of officials, diplomats, parliamentarians, researchers at think tanks, civil society organisations, university teachers, trainers, students and journalists who want to know more about the challenges and dilemmas arising from the ENP. The work has been carried out by a team of researchers from CEPS in Brussels, with the support of the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department (IOB) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Tourism is becoming a source of wealth for the world. Yet the staging and storytelling process of these cities transforms the urban landscape and the uses of public space. On the one hand, the tourism strategy aims to provide for the creation of new markets. In the past, the success of this communication and marketing process has resulted in an increase in the number of districts, which are sometimes neglected and the concentration of social problems is increased. The Barceloneta "revolt" in August 2014 and in other areas of the Catalan capital from 2014 to 2017 testifies to a crisis and urban transition that we analyze from an original field survey affiche - signs - balconies, interviews, and a census from the Barcelona Tourist Office. Our results highlight three elements explaining social tensions from the confrontation of two lifestyles, sedentary and nomadic: (1) Barcelona and its waterfront districts are victims of success and exponential tourist attraction, but also concomitant superposition of the attraction process leisure tourism, namely: heliotropism, heliotropism, and increased metropolization; (2) residential tourism and digital innovation involves a significant redefinition of the rental properties; (3) An urban crisis related to tourism and its consequences can be observed, and it engenders the desire to find a new tourism governance, but we identify a lack of strategic planning and ideological contradictions in the ability to arrive at a peaceful co-presence tourists - inhabitants.

This thesis explores the advocacy strategies and influence of interest groups in EU foreign policy. It examines in particular the impact of institutional factors on the strategies and lobbying outcomes. Conceptually, it contributes to the literature on interest groups and lobbying in the EU and to the study of non-state actor participation in international organisations.

Conceptualising EU foreign policy as multi-level and multi-pillar, the study inquires into the relationship between policy regime (ranging from the Community method to the intergovernmental method, as these predominate in different areas of EU external relations) and the degree and type of interest group influence. To this end the thesis compares three examples of EU foreign policy: visa liberalisation towards the Eastern neighbours; sanctions towards Belarus; and CSDP missions in Georgia and Palestine.

The research reveals that interest groups engage in multi-level lobbying even in those policy areas that are ruled by the intergovernmental method. Intergovernmentalism limits formal access to policymakers, but groups and policymakers build channels for informal access. To some extent contrary to the predications of established theories, this allows interest groups to exert some degree of influence even on policy dossiers in which intergovernmental arrangements prevail. In such policy domains, groups opposing change do not always succeed, despite the veto opportunities that intergovernmentalism provides.

While this is a significant finding, the thesis also notes how interest group influence is most commonly exerted upon relatively technical issues and at later stages of the policy cycle. Moreover, the study emphasises that institutional structures are not the only relevant factor in explaining group influence. Group-level characteristics, including material resources, condition groups’ ability to adapt to complex decision-making in EU foreign policy. The thesis concludes that a combination of factors is required to capture the influence of interest groups over EU foreign policy.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

Această teză de licentă analizează anumite aspecte ale PEV precum și ascensiunea acesteia într-o decadă, la fel factorii interni și externi care influențează relații UE cu statele din estul european la nivel de relații formale și acorduri de cooperare. În calitate de studiu de caz am examinat ascensiunea unui stat din Parteneriatul Estic-Republica Moldova, aceasta fiind un exemplu catalogat drept ,,de succes” de către experții europeni, cu o viziune analitică asupra modificărilor instituționale și influența acestora în procesul de integrare europeană a Republicii Moldova.

Over the past several years a number of alarm bells have been sounded on the issue of the closing space for civil society. By looking at the case of post-Euromaidan Ukraine, this chapter shows how, in a non-authoritarian “hybrid” regime, the competition over legitimacy and authority between the state and civil society involves a number of “closing space” tactics. These tactics pertain to both the legal and extralegal realms and are aimed at obstructing the activities of certain civil society groups as well as at discrediting them and questioning their commitment to the public good. The possibility of arbitrary administrative and criminal prosecution pushes civil society groups to scale back or redirect their activities, while the threat of harassment and public vilification encourages self-censorship and contributes to greater polarization rather than reconciliation in the Ukrainian public sphere. The closing space measures in post-Euromaidan Ukraine seem to be on the rise despite the reputational risks, both international and domestic, for the ruling elite that positions itself as pro-reform and pro-European. Looking at the Ukrainian case contributes to untangling the puzzle of why non-authoritarian regimes engage in these tactics despite their high costs.

https://www.ibidem.eu/en/civil-society-in-post-euromaidan-ukraine.html

The massacre of the protesters and the police during the “Euromaidan” mass protests on February 18-20, 2014 in Ukraine contributed to the overthrow of the Ukrainian government and ultimately to a start of the civil war in Donbas, Russian military interventions in Crimea and Donbas, the annexation of Crimea and an international conflict between the West and Russia. However, in spite of its importance to the politics of Ukraine and global politics this mass killing have been central subject of only a couple of studies. These studies concluded that the Maidan massacre of the protesters was a false flag operation and that far right organizations were involved in the mass killing of both police and the protesters. However, the dominant narrative promoted by the governments and the media in Ukraine and the West attributed the Maidan massacre of the protesters to the government forces and mostly ignored killings of the police. The official investigation by the Prosecutor General Office of Ukraine charged Berkut special police commanders and members with the massacre of the Madian protesters on Viktor Yanukovych orders and publicly stated that Berkut policemen and Internal Troops servicemen were killed by unknown persons of unknown allegiance.

The research question is as follows: What does a large volume of various evidence made public for the first time by the Maidan massacre trials and government investigations reveal about which of the political forces were involved in this politically crucial case of mass killing? This paper analyzes more than 350 hours of video recordings of the Maidan massacre trials and information concerning investigations of this massacre in over 2,000 official court decisions in Ukraine, media interviews of prosecutors, Maidan and Berkut lawyers, and Ukrainian media reports about these trials and investigations. It examines court testimonies of wounded protesters and relatives of the killed protesters, results of forensic ballistic and medical examinations and investigative experiments, and videos and photos of the Maidan massacre shown during the trials. A video appendix includes brief relevant videos of the Maidan massacre and information from the recordings of the Maidan massacre trial. The 55 minute long online video appendix with added English-language subtitles is compiled from brief synchronized segments of on-site reports by American, Belgian, Belarusian, British, Finish, French, Dutch, German, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian TV correspondents and social media videos by various Maidan protesters who filmed this massacre on February 20, 2014.

The study finds that the Maidan massacre investigations and trials revealed a variety of evidence, such as results of forensic examinations and testimonies of many wounded protesters, which shows that at least the absolute majority of the protesters were killed and wounded from Maidan-controlled locations and that the investigation and trials were for this reason stonewalled. The analysis  shows patterns of ineffective and delayed Maidan massacre trials and the GPU investigations, trumped-up charges, and ignoring, reversing, and covering-up of the evidence, which was revealed by the GPU own investigation and which pointed to the massacre of the protesters and the police by “snipers” in the Maidan-controlled buildings and not by the Berkut police. The paper discusses implications of this study for understanding the Maidan massacre and the conflict in Ukraine and the international conflict over Ukraine.

At the beginning of this decade, the EU’s foreign and security policy was leaderless, while several crises put Europe under pressure. The economically strong Germany had to become Europe’s new political engine. The way in which Germany took up its new and unusual role and the implications that German leadership has for the EU’s foreign and security policy are analysed in this report.
Germany fulfilled the leadership role that it never applied for. It pushed for a diplomatic solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and led the Russia sanctions policy of the West. Germany not only followed the French call for military assistance after the Paris attacks, but is also heavily engaged in diplomatic efforts to solve the Syrian conflict. Berlin is central to the development of broader EU policies, such as the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Common Security and Defence Policy. It is in the driver’s seat when it comes to relationships with key international actors, such as Russia, Turkey and the US.
Germany has become an unlikely and unusual foreign policy leader, which still differs in various aspects from traditional foreign policy powerhouses. It leads through institutions and diplomacy rather than military power. It seeks European solutions rather than national ones. However, the success and sustainability of Germany’s approach depends on securing Europe’s unity and resilience in the face of crises in the neighbourhood and the effects of globalization.

В ноябре 2015 г. Европейская Комиссия и Высокий представитель
ЕС по иностранным делам и политике безопасности объявили
о пересмотре Европейской политики соседства. Пространство
соседства больше неоднородно, оно нестабильно и фрагментировано. Основной целью ЕС в этих обстоятельствах
становится стабилизация политической ситуации в странах-партнёрах. Государства Южного Кавказа строят отношения с ЕС в отличающихся друг от друга форматах. Статья касается предпосылок и сути пересмотра политики соседства, особенностей развития взаимоотношений ЕС с Арменией, Грузией и Азербайджаном.
Автор приходит к выводу о том,что сфокусированность политики соседства на демократических реформах и экономическом взаимодействии не даёт ответов на долговременные и глубинные
политические разломы во взаимоотношениях между странами,
которые являются основным препятствием для развития региона.

Ukraine previously experienced significant regional political divisions, including separatism in Crimea and Donbas. However, in contrast to post-communist countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, and former Yugoslavia, prior to 2014 Ukraine was able to avoid a war and a break-up. This study examines the role of separatists, the Yanukovych government, the Maidan opposition and the Maidan government, far-right organizations, Russia, the US, and the EU in the conflict in Donbas. It uses a specially commissioned survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in 2014 to analyse public support for separatism in Donbas, compared to other regions of Ukraine, and the major factors which affect such support. It concludes that all these actors contributed in various ways to the conflict in Donbas, which involved both a civil war and a direct Russian military intervention since August 2014. The study links this conflict to the 'Euromaidan', specifically, the government overthrow by means of the Maidan massacre, and the secession and Russia's annexation of Crimea. The KIIS survey shows that support for separatism is much stronger in Donbas compared to other regions, with the exception of Crimea, and that the break-up of Ukraine is unlikely to extend to its other parts.