The many patterns of Europeanization: European union relations with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

Abstract

[Excerpt] Since the beginning ofthe 1990s, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine (along with Moldova) have been considered targets of some 'special' European Union (EU) project in its Eastern neighbourhood, as a group of the so-called Western New independent States and after the Eastern enlargement the EU's immediate neighbours. They share another commonality: while the membership application of the Southern EU neighbour Morocco was rejected on grounds of not being a `European' country, this argument cannot be applied to the three states in question. At the same time, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine display different patterns of relationship with the EU. Russia is the EU's Strategic Partner with the framework of the Four Common Spaces guiding the bilateral cooperation; Ukraine has European aspirations and is an active member of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP); and Belanis is only participating in the Eastern Partnership initiative, while the fundamental document regulating the cooperation with the EU, i.e. the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), remains unsigned. [....]