Greening the Neighbourhood? The Environmental Dimension of the ENP in Morocco and Ukraine

Abstract:
Five years after launching the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) two ideas seem to be undisputed about it: it aims to promote deeper and broader relationships between the EU and its neighbours. Nevertheless, these claims have not been tested empirically, especially when it comes to the broadness hypothesis. Thus, this article enquires about the extent to which the EU is promoting the adoption of rules by neighbourhood countries in allegedly new and less politicized issue areas. In order to address this question we look at the environmental dimension of the ENP, focusing on the cases of Morocco and Ukraine. We conceptualize the environmental dimension of the ENP and put forward an account that highlights the institutional logics of rule promotion under the ENP, as well as its double contingency on agents that are central for the implementation of the policies: bureaucratic structures and non-state actors.