(Not) learning from the past? The diffusion of the EU’s rural development policy in its neighbouring countries

After the Arab revolts the EU attempted to contribute to the rural development of the Arab Mediterranean states by designing the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD). Through ENPARD the EU tried to diffuse policies that were implemented in the new member states (NMS) and the candidate countries. Based on the experiences of one NMS (Croatia) and one candidate country (Turkey), the article surveys what is (not) learned from the pre-accession programmes and the limits of policy diffusion in Egypt and Tunisia. The article claims that policy diffusion must be distinguished from policy convergence and that policy success must be contextualized by taking into account the role of domestic actors in each case study.