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Educational practices are instrumental in the transfer of European values beyond EU borders. Our aim is to problematize Europeanisation through education in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries by studying the promotion of EU studies in higher education projects funded by the Erasmus + programme. The paper discusses the educational dimension of Europeanisation in EaP countries from three interrelated perspectives - social constructivism, the Foucauldian concept of governmentality and a post-structuralist reading of centrality and marginality. We specifically focus on a series of international projects developed by the University of Tartu (Estonia) in partnership with other EU-based and non-EU universities from the EaP. We used qualitative data from reports of 4 EU-funded cooperation projects and also students' views obtained in 2 focus groups that explored how the EU is taught and discussed. In the end, the added value of the article is that it offers a critical view on teaching the EU in the Eastern neighborhood, focusing on nuanced local perspectives on the challenges of Europeanisation through education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy in 2004 was an instrument established to achieve a rapprochement between the countries of Eastern Europe and the Southern Mediterranean with the European Union. Since this common policy began, it has evolved very differently in the distinct countries that are part of it. One such country is Ukraine, which has developed special relations with the European Union. So much so that, since the implementation of a specific dimension called the Eastern Partnership in 2009, relations have been fluctuating between Ukraine and the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflecting on the results presented in articles in this special issue, European leaders should take greater account of external perceptions in crafting the European Union's strategic narrative and guiding its actions. Failure to do so has impaired external policies like the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership. Leaders emerging from the Arab uprisings perceived the EU as complicit with their countries' former anciens régimes and Russian leaders see EU support for democracy and the market economy in former Soviet states as duplicitous and instrusive. Awareness of such perceptions should be filtered into EU decision-making, without validating views that European officials and diplomats consider misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at analyzing the circumstances and objectives of the regional integration in the context of global development. The EU is one of the most influential and important actors of the global world, which represents one of the most developed examples of the regional integration. During the development, the EU went through the several stages on enlargement. Even nowadays, without having targeted to the reactive new member in foreseen future, the EU continues the process of integration of adjacent regions by setting goals and priorities through different forms such as the European Neighborhood, the Eastern Partnership, Association Agreements, various types of Trade agreements. The Eastern Partnership which represents the EU's eastern neighborhood consisting by former soviet republics has steadily gone up with integration: 1. Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine have already signed the Association Agreement (AA) including Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTAs) with the EU and now these countries work on further progress in terms of the Implementation of AA/DCFTA; 2. Armenia and Azerbaijan are seeking new framework to up-grade their relationship with the EU, Belarus created EU Belarus Co-ordination Group and acts within the Single Support Framework program for 2017-2020. The evolution of EaP countries' trade data evidently show the changes and growing dynamics in the region. The obvious increasing tendency of trade volumes predicts for further success in the future after the DC FTAs are enacted fully for some countries and/or other trade facilitation measures are utilized fully for others. A new approach to the economic growth also suggests that benefit from economic growth supports poverty reduction, widely spreads across sectors and affects the majority of the labor force and hence, rise the welfare of the population. In this context, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) appears to be a useful tool to achieve this overwhelming goal. In the difficult business climate prevailing in most of the EaP countries, the role of the EU support could include raising awareness on CSR and supporting the implementation of relevant standards in the enterprises that are benefiting from the EU assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses how the involvement of European party federations (Europarties) in the politics of Eastern Partnership (EaP) states relates to the objectives of the EU in the region. Under specific scope conditions, Europarties can promote EU interests and values and help EU neighbourhood policy overcome some of the inconsistencies created by the lack of the enlargement tool. The article conceptualises Europarties as transnational actors whose external activities match the pathways of EU influence in EaP states. Empirically, by examining political developments in Georgia and Moldova, the article demonstrates how Europarties function as a conduit for EU strategic influence over pro-European elites, as well as a normative influence on the functioning of party politics in EaP states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is twofold, i.e. to discuss the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe/the EU as a key frame of reference for further considerations and to analyse what are, so far, the consequences of this crisis for the Eastern Partnership (EaP) and the EU cooperation with the EaP countries. Thus, the paper consists of two main parts. It starts with a brief overview of the migration and asylum landscape in Europe/the EU in times of the so-called 'crisis' of 2014+, some discussions about what kind of crisis we are talking about and what the crisis means in different contexts. This is followed by a general picture of the EU response to the migrant and refugee crisis in order to show where we are in mid-2017. The second part of the paper deals with the issue of the Eastern Partnership - the current state of play is presented and factors influencing this EU political initiative are highlighted in particular in the context of the migrant and refugee crisis in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present contribution explores the changing relationship between the European Union (EU) and the two largest countries in its eastern neighbourhood, namely Ukraine and Russia, between 1991 and 2014. Taking the differential between the existence of the EU Strategic Partnership (SP) with Russia and the absence of such an arrangement in the relationship with Ukraine as a point of departure, it investigates how the EU has dealt with different aspirations and challenges stemming from its two largest eastern neighbours. Adopting the Social Identity Theory perspective, the contribution analyses the interrelationship between the evolution of the EU’s SP approach towards the eastern neighbours and the development of (particular dimensions of) the EU’s identity. It demonstrates how the process of categorization relating to the ideational ‘self’, ‘we’ and ‘other’ took place; and how only the EU’s relationship with Russia and not that with Ukraine has accumulated the discursive markers of a strategic partnership. The contribution, furthermore, analyses the challenges to the EU changing approach stemming from the 2013–2014 Ukraine crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is an attempt to understand the significance of the Eastern Partnership project for Eastern Europe and the Southern Caucasus as well as the European Union and offer a set of recommendations for improving the Eastern Partnership. The fourth 2015 EaP Summit was a key moment for the EU in terms of identifying its response policy to the hybrid war between Russia and Ukraine. The crisis has led to unprecedented challenges for the security and economic interests of the EU and its member states and these should be faced accordingly. In a geopolitical confrontation the EU is doomed to failure. Therefore the rationale behind the "either/ or" policy (either integration with the EU or with Russia - by means of a customs union) has to be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis focuses on the three types of challenges to the EaP and the EaP's crisis management flagship initiative: economic challenges, institutional-bureaucratic challenges and regional competition. It finds that while they are very different in nature and context, the three categories of challenges pose relatively similarly serious problems for the EaP. The economic challenges alone will not essentially threaten the EaP. Even if the EU maintains the current levels of funding the EaP or even modestly reduces it, funding has already been so low so far that a moderate reduction of its current levels is unlikely to fundamentally endanger the EaP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article examines the main principles that underpin Polish foreign policy towards its Eastern neighbours, focusing on the attributes of Poland's latest contribution to the European Union's (EU) policies - the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The article argues that the main attributes of the EaP are not only the outcome of Polish security concerns, but are also deeply rooted in Polish national identity. After years of communist rule, Polish national identity has been in a process of reconstruction, not only through the "return to Europe", but also through the re-establishment of closer bonds with its Eastern neighbours. At the same time, the Eastern Partnership provides the means for Poland to redefine its role in the political landscape of the EU and to infiltrate its national identity and ideals into the EU's political reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is now the flags hip policy of the European Union towards its neighbours. Although the ENP did not include the South Caucasus countries from the beginning, last years brought important changes in this respect. The development of the ENP in the South Caucasus can be understood as the result of (he European internal debates, of the institutional corrections made by (he European Commission and of (he external events' influence over the Union. The European Neighbourhood Policy still needs further improvements, especially concerning the Eastern neighbours. In (his paper, I will try to assess the ENP in the South Caucasus, analysing the following aspects: the EU interests in the region, the bilateral relations before the ENP, the Action Plans, the EU's assistance, the perspectives open by the Eastern Partnership - announcedfor spring 2009. The paper will finish with conclusions and recommendations regarding the improvement of the ENP in the South Caucasus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]