ECPR

Install the app

Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.

Just tap Share then “Add to Home Screen”

The Case of Ukraine and Its Lessons: From ENP to EU Accession

Civil Society
Democracy
Democratisation
European Union
Candidate
Anna Osypchuk
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Anna Osypchuk
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Anton Suslov
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

Abstract

The full-scale Russia’s invasion to Ukraine on 24.02.2022 drastically changed the geopolitical situation and established a new security order. Most significantly such changes could be seen in the dramatic shift of the EU’s support of Ukraine. In our analysis of perception and substance of EU’s policy toward Ukraine since 2014 and especially after the full-scale invasion in 2022; of inner EU contestation as related to EU foreign policy toward Ukraine; and of its geopolitical aspects as well as other actors’/countries’ policies, and their interplay with EU’s FP, we are drawing upon a series of semi-structured interviews with Ukrainian civil society experts, government officials, and members of parliament whose work and expertise had been related to foreign policy and/or European integration conducted over August-October 2022. The qualitative research is complimented by the data from representative surveys on Ukrainians’ perception of and attitudes to democracy and the EU’s democracy support. As evident from our analysis, the consistent long-term support of democracy and reforms by the EU played a significant role in Ukrainians’ perception of the EU as one of the main allies of democratic Ukraine, even though before 2022 the prospect of candidacy for Ukraine was far-fetched. The full-fledged Russian aggression in 2022 brought a re-evaluation of the EU’s foreign policy toward Ukraine and to the whole of Eastern Neighbourhood. To conclude, we make a comparison of our findings on Ukrainian case with the EU’s democracy support policies within Eastern Neighbourhood in 2022-2023 and perception of those policies by population of these countries. We argue that such a shift from ENP to enlargement policy (particularly in the case of Ukraine) is increasingly seen as a realist and pragmatic and not just normative/value based. Also, we discuss the implications it has for EU’s ENP and democracy support in Western Balkans and Southern Neighbourhood.