| Publication |
2006.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Lippert examines more broadly EU policies towards its eastern neighbours, suggesting an alternative model with which to embed these countries in the EU system of governance. Lippert argues that a path dependency and the lack of a foreign policy focus lie at the root of the inbuilt fallacies of the ENP. Indeed, the ENP in principle purports to envisage a new type of relationship, distinct from the model of economic integration (for example, the European Economic Area) or that of accession or of association/partnership. Yet in practice, having been articulated as a form of "membership minus" that denies any form of institutional participation, the ENP cannot significantly contribute to the modernisation and stabilisation objectives to which it aspires. To escape this bind, Lippert suggests that, for those eastern neighbours who could in principle have the option of membership but are in practice far removed from it, the EU, in addition to its bilateral contractual ties, should establish an overarching institutional framework: a European Confederation of Tasks (Confed Europe). Confed Europe could act as an institutional process, tackling and striving to reach a common purpose on key policy issues in the political, economic and security realms.
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