Crisis, Coordination and Coherence: European Decision-Making and the 2015 European Neighbourhood Policy Review

This paper discusses the 2015 reform of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), focusing on the preferences of and coordination among the member state and EU-level actors responsible for designing the policy framework. In doing so the paper contributes to scholarship on the politics of multi-level decision-making in the EU’s external relations policymaking system. Drawing on the rich empirical material of the 2015 ENP review, it argues that an overwhelming perception of crisis among key decision-makers evolved into a consensus that turbulence in the neighbourhood posed serious threats to the EU. This facilitated a joint effort to coordinate across member states and EU institutions to reach a common position on a narrow set of policy priorities, especially regarding security, counter terrorism and border control. Although this has produced a more focussed and therefore more coherent policy framework, it has also dramatically reduced the ENP’s ambition. Support for liberal-democratic political and economic transformation in the EU’s image has been stripped away, leaving a securitised cooperation framework aimed at increasing 'resilience' to perceived threats in the neighbourhood.