The European External Action Service and the Ukraine crisis: the case of the 2015 revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy

The chapter argues that the Ukraine crisis prompted the EEAS to start a process of revision and renewal in the EU’s foreign policy. This first implied revamping the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and then drawing on the lessons learned from this process in devising a new Global Strategy for the EU. The chapter focuses primarily on the revision of the ENP, which took place throughout 2015, as the most important activity that the EEAS has been involved in the neighborhood following the onset of the Ukraine crisis. To that extent, the most important change of paradigm that the review of the ENP introduced was the need to enhance the ownership of ENP initiatives among the neighborhood states. The next two sections focus on the two artifacts of the romantic period in the EU’s foreign policy and their impact on this policy area. This is followed by a discussion of the framework of the chapter and the role of the EEAS in the revision of the ENP. The chapter finds that the revision of the ENP allowed the EEAS to test a series of policy ideas and practices that would then be developed during the strategic review that led to the Global Strategy. These ideas included the need to be clear about the promotion of EU interests in the neighborhood, including Russia in the trilateral negotiations for the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTA) with Ukraine, and promoting the need to enhance ownership among neighborhood countries. The chapter highlights that the revision of the ENP allowed the EEAS to enhance its ability to contribute to the design and implementation of the ENP, as well as enhancing cooperation and coordination with the EU’s institutions and the member states.