PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • All Members
      • Core Members
      • Collegium Members
      • Associate Members
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
Contacts

Address
1957 E St NW,
Washington, DC 20052

adminponars@gwu.edu
202.994.5915

NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • All Members
      • Core Members
      • Collegium Members
      • Associate Members
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • The Determinants of Assistance to Ukrainian and Syrian Refugees | New Voices on Eurasia with Volha Charnysh (Feb. 16)

    View
  • Conflicts in the North Caucasus Since 1991 | PONARS Eurasia Online Academy

    View
  • Will Ukraine Wind Up Making Territorial Concessions to Russia? Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts

    View
  • Pro-Kremlin Propaganda’s Failure in Ukraine | New Voices on Eurasia with Aaron Erlich (Jan. 19)

    View
  • Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • The Putin-Xi Summit: What's New In Their Joint Communique ? February 23, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.
  • Exploring the Russian Courts' Ruling to Liquidate the Memorial Society January 28, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.
  • Russia's 2021 census and the Kremlin's nationalities policy [Lipman Series 2021] December 9, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy
  • Active citizens of any kind are under threat [Lipman Series 2021] November 5, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.
  • Russia's Legislative Elections followup [Lipman Series 2021] October 4, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.
  • Why Is the Kremlin Nervous? [Lipman Series 2021] September 14, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.
  • Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France, and the United States [Lipman Series 2021] August 31, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.  
  • Is Russia Becoming More Soviet? [Lipman Series 2021] July 26, 2021
      In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.
  • The Evolution of Russia's Political Regime [Lipman Series 2021] June 21, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.
  • Volodymyr Zelensky: Year Two [Lipman Series 2021] May 24, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

“I don’t want to call it spheres of influence, but…”

  • January 30, 2013
  • Andrey Makarychev

The EU will most likely keep Ukraine on the Europeanization track, thereby giving it a chance to sign an Association Agreement on November 28 at the Vilnius Summit of the Eastern Partnership (EP).

This was the key political message of Swedish diplomat Madeleine Majorenko, who is a unit head of the European Neighborhood Policy within the Commission’s External Relations Directorate.

At the “Borders of Integration: European Strategies for Neighboring Regions” event held at the European Academy in Berlin on January 23-25, Majorenko said that the EP, from its very inception, was a reaction to Russia’s policies, and more specifically to its war with Georgia in August 2008.

She said, “We might see a more expansive language in Vilnius, largely as a reaction to Russia's policies. People of Eastern Europe belong to Europe, not to Russia. I don't want to call it spheres of influence, but it is what it is.”

Thus, the EU’s interests are nowadays more clear, again thanks to Russia's policies. The way Majorenko described Europe’s interests appears to be a combination of Realpolitik (“Moldova has a chance to join the EU because it is so small”) and a vision of Europe as consisting of concentric rings with Brussels at its center (“Show that you can adapt our rules and work with your neighbors”). These were her messages to countries looking for membership perspective.

The logic, we presume, is that cross-border mobility is not a value per se but “the ultimate reward for countries that behave good and do not pose a threat to us” (perhaps, with the exception of Belarus whose government does not seem to be responsive to EU’s offers for visa facilitation).

One more illustrative quotation from Majorenko: “Our response to Ukraine for now is the following: be ready to accept a “no” but at least you have a chance. Don't ask too much until the time comes.”

Reacting to Russia makes one sometimes put interests over values. Perhaps, the EU understands that it doesn't have many trump cards. Russian’s offer to Eastern Europe is clear: Moscow will reduce gas prices for those who choose to join the Eurasian Union. Does the EU can offer something quantifiable? Not really, at least not in the near term.

In the meantime, the EU still tries to play the role of a normative power while dealing with uneasy eastern neighbors. Majorenko referred to the risk of a new “curtain” beween East and West Europe, which has made the EU develop its European Neighborhood Policy far beyond classical foreign policy lines, striving to transform neighboring countries and negotiating with them acquis, which never happened before.

The EU also wants its neighbors to embrace the concept of a deep (as opposed to hollow) democracy, seemingly as a reaction to the Arab spring. In my view, this is a typical example of wishful thinking: for most of the EP countries, even strengthening some elementary procedures of democracy would be a sign of progress.

For Ukraine, the EU wishes to keep high expectations for the Vilnius summit. But if Ukraine emerges disappointed, in Majorenko's opinion, it will give a hard time to Brussels to continue running the EP as it used to, and to convince other eastern partners to anchor themselves in the EU-centric normative order.

Academic experts at the event were less optimism about the EU's ability to seriously influence its neighbors. For example, Eckart Stratenschulte, the head of the European Academy in Berlin, has sarcastically called the EU “the world champion in producing external strategies” without necessarily implementing them. David Kereselidze, the director of the Athens-based International Center for Black Sea Studies, claimed that the Black Sea Synergy program developed by the EU is short of practical effects due to the multiple conflicts cleaving the region. One German colleague dubbed Eastern Partnership “hopeless.”

Andrey Makarychev is a Guest Professor at the Free University of Berlin, blogging for PONARS Eurasia on the Russia-EU neighborhood.

Related Topics
  • Makarychev
Previous Article
  • Uncategorized

The Politics of Nation-Building: Making Co-Nationals, Refugees, and Minorities

  • January 30, 2013
  • PONARS Eurasia
View
Next Article
  • In the News | Hовости

Доверительное управление

  • January 30, 2013
  • Sergei Markedonov
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • January 11, 2023
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Prevailing Soviet Legacies

  • Irina Busygina and Mikhail Filippov
  • December 27, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

In Russia’s Nuclear Messaging to West and Ukraine, Putin Plays Both Bad and Good Cop

  • Simon Saradzhyan
  • December 23, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Ukraine’s Asymmetric Responses to the Russian Invasion

  • Nurlan Aliyev
  • July 28, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем
  • Territorial Conflict

Dominating Ukraine’s Sky

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • March 5, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russian Anti-War Protests and the State’s Response

  • Lauren McCarthy
  • March 4, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Путин и Лукашенко

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 29, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Отравление оппозиционеров в России превратилось в регулярную практику

  • Vladimir Gel'man
  • August 22, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events
Powered by narva.io

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.