Les temporalités de l’européanisation

Abstract

The failure of the Vilnius summit in late 2013 and the recent events in Ukraine have revealed the consequences of neglecting the historical trajectories of partner countries in negotiations between the European Union and its Eastern partners. The events demonstrate that collective experiences nourished by different historical references provide actors with the capability to invoke other temporalities. It appears that without shared references and collective interests, asymmetries between actors are bound to increase. The examination of the enlargement process and the European Neighbourhood Policy exposes the limits of the European Commission’s strategy that allegedly counts on the socialisation of elites to counteract conflict. When the ideas that founded the EU and the transfer of competences become irrelevant, results are no more than empty declarations. Based on the analysis of the two sequences of external EU policy, the article comes to the conclusion that temporalities are a major issue in negotiations and that “Europeanization” is not the model for every possible negotiation.

Keywords

• collective identity
• Public policy
• Europeanization
• European Neighbourhood Policy
• Enlargement
• socialisation