Nachbarschaftspolitik: Zeit für "ENP Plus"

In diesem Aufsatz des Centre of European Policy Studies (CEPS) plädieren Michael Emerson, Gergana Noutcheva und Nicu Popescu für eine stärkere Differenzierung der Ansätze der Nachbarschaftspolitik (ENP) je nach Land.

Conceived in 2003 and 2004, the ENP has now been operational for two years.

This initial experience has seen a sorting out of the partner states, Emerson explains, with Action Plans drawn up for five eastern and seven southern partner states. The authors distinguish from these 12 states the willing and the passive; and among the other partner states without Action Plans between the reluctant and the excluded. 

These groupings should be the basis for stronger differentiation in the policy packages offered by the EU, according to the authors.

In general the political context now calls for a strong reinforcement of the ENP, the authors continue, since the benign situation of 2004 has given way to threats to European values bearing down on the EU from all sides. 

The EU institutions recognise these needs in principle, and in December 2006 the Commission advanced many valuable proposals, the authors say. However, they also note that ENP plus is a term being used by the current German EU Presidency, without this yet being defined in a public document in operational detail. In the authors/ view, ENP ‚plus‘ could mean:

• Plus an advanced association model for the able and willing partner states;
• plus a strengthening of regional-multilateral schemes;
• plus an upgrading of the standard instruments being deployed, and;
• plus the offer of an ‘ENP light’ model for difficult states or non-recognised entities.

They end by suggesting a 15-point programme for achieving a qualitative upgrading of the ENP, to give it strategic leverage, rather than allowing it to be seen as a „poor cousin“ of the enlargement process.